


Corrupted Optimism

by KrumbleKitty



Category: Granny (Video Game), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Abandoned Midoriya Izuku, Angst and Tragedy, Blood and Gore, Granny 2, Granny 2 (video game), Happy Midoriya Izuku, Homeless Midoriya Izuku, Homeless Shinsou Hitoshi, House Cleaning, Insomniac Shinsou Hitoshi, Midoriya Izuku & Shinsou Hitoshi Friendship, Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Midoriya Izuku Has Issues, Midoriya Izuku Has Multiple Quirks, Midoriya Izuku Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk, Midoriya Izuku Needs A Hug, Midoriya Izuku and Shinsou Hitoshi Are Siblings, Midoriya Izuku is Not Okay, Midoriya Izuku is Not a Hero, Midoriya Izuku is a Mess, Orphan Midoriya Izuku, Orphan Shinsou Hitoshi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protective Shinsou Hitoshi, Psychopath Midoriya Izuku, Quirkless Midoriya Izuku, Shinsou Hitoshi Has Issues, Shinsou Hitoshi Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Shinsou Hitoshi Needs a Hug, Shinsou Hitoshi Replaces Mineta Minoru, Shinsou Hitoshi is in Class 1-A, Traumatized Midoriya Izuku, Villain Midoriya Izuku, Villain Shinsou Hitoshi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-23 11:47:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 34,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30054993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrumbleKitty/pseuds/KrumbleKitty
Summary: All Izuku wanted was to be loved. All he needed was someone to say: "I see you." When he was placed int he orphanage at a young age he fought for love in families that would come to adopt but with his quirkless status no one spared him a glance until he met Hitoshi, another orphan, only to be separated and reunited again but in a much worse situation.Fighting their way to air in the storm that has become their lives, Izuku and Hitoshi have turned to the dark side of the world in search of love when the world denied them the love they needed and the world, make their words, will regret it. Starting from the bottom, they vow to turn the world on it's head with and force it to give them the love they deserved in the first place.
Relationships: Midoriya Hisashi/Midoriya Inko, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 83
Kudos: 83





	1. I Love You More!

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back to another Krumble Kitty fanfic of Boku no Hero Acadamia! Can't promise the success of this one or if anyone will like it but here we go again! The start is a bit weird but please bare with it. Or don't. That's fine too.
> 
> If you've ever seen or played the mobile game Granny or Granny 2, mostly Granny 2, the start of this will look very familiar. If you do't like horror games too much but don't hate them or are looking for an introductory game into them, give it a try! It's a lot of fun! After that part though it is mostly back to just another BnHA fic.
> 
> Well then, good luck, happy readings, and let's get to the story!

**Entry #1 - Yua**

_I’m scared. This isn’t normal. This isn’t like the other orphanages. Granny and Grandpa locked me in the basement in this room that is small enough to be a closet. I was told to call them that. They are scary. It’s cold. The bed is just a board with a thin mattress hung on the wall by chains. There isn’t even a bathroom, only a bucket and some toilet paper. I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve been here but I feel like maybe it’s a week? I’ve been fed three times stale bread and water. I know I am here because no one wanted to adopt me but at least all of the other orphanages were better than this one. I hope I get moved soon…_

____________________________

Midoriya Izuku always tried to be optimistic.

From ages 0 to 4 he truly was the happiest child alive! He had a perfect family. It was just him, Mommy, and Daddy. Mommy and Daddy loved him and he loved them just as much. NO. Izuku loved them _more!_

“Love you.”

“I love you more.”

“I love you most!”

“I love you to infinity and beyond!”

“Grrr…”

“I win!”

It was a game he played with Mommy every night she tucked him in for bed. Whoever got to say “infinity and beyond” won. Sometimes Izuku would say “I love you” and Mommy would say “I love you” and forget the “more” part so if he said it really, really quickly before she could remember and say it then he would win!

They did this before she dropped him off at preschool too. Izuku was sad being at preschool all day without Mommy because she and Daddy had to work but he had his friends. Like Kacchan! Kacchan is Izuku’s very bestest friend! Kacchan, as opposed to Izuku’s curly green hair and freckles, has spikey blonde hair and clear skin. His eyes are bright red. Izuku’s are deep green. Kacchan is loud and boisterous and a little mean sometimes and Izuku is meek and gentle and all of his teachers say he is a little angel.

They couldn’t be more different but they mellow each other out.

“Izu! Izu!” Kacchan came running into the preschool room in his little blue gown just like all of them wore. “Kacchan!” Izuku jumped up from his blocks and ran over to his friend. They collided in a big hug. The adults all thought it was adorable. Kacchan took Izuku by the shoulders and shook him. “Guess what!”

“WhAaAt?!” Izuk’s voice shook as Kacchan shook him.

“Guess!” Kacchan shook him again.

“I dOn’T kNoW!”

“I got my quirk!”

“YoU g-” Izuku grabbed his friends hands and stopped him. “YOU GOT YOUR QUIRK?!” The whole class stopped and stared.

Quirks. At the age of four or a bit after or maybe before a child will develop supernatural power. Something like water bending, shapeshifting, super speed. As time went on, they got more diverse. Some were able to see the particles in the air. Some are able to make another freeze in place. It is different to everyone. But it wasn’t always like this. The human population used to be completely quirkless, aka, without power. It wasn’t until many centuries ago when the first glowing baby was born that quirks were discovered. Then they began to pop up everywhere.

“That’s amazing, Kacchan! What is it? What is it?!” Izuku bounced on his toes. Kacchan lifted his head. “Watch this.” He held out his palms. The whole class was waiting to see just what power the boy had developed.

* **pop** * * **pop** * * **pop** *

Tiny explosions escaped from Kacchan’s palms. Izuku’s eyes lit up. “That’s so cool!” “I know! I’m awesome!” “You are!” The class oohed and awed. Truly a quirk befitting of a hero. “Now all we gotta do is wait for you to get your quirk, Izu, and then we can be heroes together! Just like All Might!”

Heroes. Super Heroes. With the rise of quirks came the rise of criminals making use of them to do villainous things. To counteract that, people began stepping up in the name of justice, using their quirks to protect those without quirks. Back in those days, not everyone had a quirk. Nowadays 80% of the human population had one. 20% are born quirkless. The government began to hire heroes to take care of the villains. Hero schools and agencies began to pop up all of the world. Before they knew it, the world as they knew it had turned into the world from comic books from the Pre-quirk Era.

Izuku went home babbling to his parents about Kacchan’s amazing quirk. He sat down to watch his favorite video of All Might as he dreamed about what quirk he would develop. All Might is the Number One hero in all of Japan and all of the world and Izuku’s and Kacchan’s number one, all time, favorite hero. The video was one that Izuku watched often of All Might’s debut saving hundreds of people from a collapsed burning building. Izuku dreamed of being a hero like All Might one day. Little did he know that his mother and father were discussing worrying topics behind his back mostly surrounding Izuku and his quirk. He turned four a few months ago. The latest age for anyone to ever develop their quirk is five years old but he should have already gotten one.

“Izuku, we are going to be late!” Mommy yelled from the front door of their apartment. The little green haired boy snatched his favorite All Might figuring off of his tower of toys and rushed out of his bedroom. “I’m coming! I’m coming!”

Today they were going to a quirk spec- special- specialist? Izuku is still learning the bigger words. He’ll get it down some day. His teacher says he is a fast learner. Today Izuku is going to figure out when he will finally get his quirk because it’s been, like, four months since he turned four and Kacchan is getting impa- impatient. Yeah. He doesn’t like waiting and neither does Izuku but Izuku is more patientierer than Kacchan is patient. And despite his claim to patience Izuku is bouncing in his car seat. He smiles down at the big grin on All Might’s face. _I’m going to find my quirk! I’m going to be just like you! I’m going to be a hero!_

“ **Your son is quirkless.** ”

Mommy and Daddy say not to swear but Izuku swears he heard that wrong! This old bald man just told Mommy that Izuku is quirkless! Quirkless as in he won’t get a quirk! Quirkless as in he won’t ever, never ever ever, get a quirk! That’s not true! It’s not possible! His All Might toy falls to the ground. Mommy explains to the doctor about their generations of quirk users but it is all dull in his mind. _This isn’t true! This isn’t real! Bad dream! It’s a nightmare! Nightmare!_

Mommy is silent on the way home. Izuku is silent on the way home too. He fights to keep his smile up though because he thinks Mommy is sad and he doesn’t want Mommy to be sad. What should he say? Sorry? He already tried that and she said it was okay and that it wasn’t his fault.

“Why don’t you go watch your hero videos, hmm?” Mommy pushes him gently towards the computer room. “But screen time isn’t until after dinner, right?” he asks. She smiled. “I’ll give you extra screen time today. But you can’t tell Daddy, alright?” she winks. Izuku giggles. He fake zips his lips and skips off to the computer.

Daddy comes home from work just before dinner like always but Mommy doesn’t come get Izuku to eat. Mommy and Daddy are having an important adult meeting. Izuku hears a bit of yelling. He knows it is about him. He tries to ignore it. He tries to focus on the screen, on All Might’s smile. He tries to copy that smile on his face. Izuku tries to be optimistic. It doesn’t hold out for long. He remembers what the old doctor said. _I’m quirkless…_ Wet viridian eyes stare numbly at the screen. The door to the computer room finally opens. He spins around in his chair with tears streaming down his face. Mommy stands in the doorway sadly.

Izuku points at the screen showing All Might’s debut video again. “M- Mommy? Can I be a hero too?” Mommy rushes over, falls on her knees, and hugs him. 

“ **I’m sorry, Izuku. I’m so, so sorry!** ”

Izuku tries to be optimistic. The toe joint test isn’t 100% accurate, only like 97.88% accurate. There is a 2.12% chance he has a quirk. He could just be a late bloomer. But Mommy’s words… her sobs and tears… they break something in Izuku. It’s like reality settling in. Izuku stares numbly out of the door as his mother holds him and tears silently cascade down his cheeks. He sees Daddy walk by, not even giving a glance to the heart breaking scene in the computer room. The next day Daddy wasn’t there to say goodbye to him as he left for preschool. Mommy was silent about it. Izuku lied about the results not coming in yet for his quirk to buy time at school. Mommy didn’t add “more” to her nightly “I love you” and when Izuku did she didn’t follow it up with “most” so they could play the game. The next morning, Izuku found out Daddy had left overnight. He packed up his belongings, took half of the family’s savings, and hit the road leaving a note behind. Mommy could have not read it aloud but she did. She looked at it, at Izuku, at it, and at Izuku again. Her eyes were dark.

“‘Sorry, Inko,’” she read in a monotone voice, “‘I just can’t handle raising such a useless waste of space. Maybe if Izuku had a quirk it would be different.” And then- “‘If you want me, I’ve gone to America to work. But I don’t want that child so don’t come if you still have him. You have my number. Bye.’”

Izuku gripped the bottom of his preschool dress. “I- is Mommy leaving too?” he asks. Something in Mommy clicks, realizing she just read that to her son on purpose. She drops it and falls to her knees again, holding her son. “No, Izu, I would never! I’m sorry. I love you! I won’t leave.” Izuku hugs her back. He’s scared. He’s worried. He doesn’t know what his preschool friends will say when he tells them he is quirkless. He goes to school like normal and Mommy says “I love you _more_.” Izuku waves and skips in like normal. He meets with Kacchan and the question is of course popped. “So when are you getting your quirk, Izu?!” And the whole class that has already developed their quirks look. Izuku’s smile stretches thin.

Izuku tries to be optimistic.

____________________________

**Entry #2 - Yua**

_I know it’s called the “End of the Line Orphan Home” but I am seriously starting to think it is! I tried to get out to the first floor. I got far enough to see the front door. It’s boarded up? And has electric lines on it? And a padlock? And a cage? There was no handle either? Looking around all of the windows were barred too! It’s like I am in some jail or something._

_Granny found me. She had a bat. I didn’t stand a chance. I was hungry and weak. I woke up in the basement again with a broken leg. It hurts._

_Hey. That cage on the front door… I get this is the last orphanage for me, the last chance to get adopted but this isn’t really an orphanage, is it? No one will come, will they? I’m not going to get out of here, am I?_


	2. She Lied

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Mommy? What's an orpaneege?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone? A bit confused? Yeah. Don't worry. It'll make sense soon.

**Entry #3 - Yua**

_ There is an iron maiden and a boat. I pretended to be asleep when Grandpa came to change my bucket and feed me. I “woke up” when he left. I figured maybe I have at least a few hours to explore the basement so I did. I had to be quiet. Granny’s hearing is scary good. Grandpa’s is really bad but he hits harder than Granny I found out. I couldn’t move for a week after my last excursion. Bad try. He was coming down the same time I was going up. Broke a rib I think.  _

_ Anyway, I explored the basement today. I’ve probably been here about a month or something. I don’t know. Truly, my grip on time is fading. I can count to sixty second and know that’s a minute, sixty minutes is an hour. I counted a whole day once out of boredom. Anyway x2, I checked the basement. There is another small room down here with the iron maiden in it. If I recall correctly, the iron maiden was a torture device, right? Criminals in the olden days were put in it and the spikes on the doors would impale them when it closed. They’d bleed out and die. I wonder why it is here? _

_ There is a second level to the basement. Two flights of stairs lead to a room with a boat in icky looking water. There are bars keeping it from leaving though in a tunnel or something. I tried to squeeze through the bars but when my foot hit the water it burned! I think it’s poisoned or something. Out of curiosity, I surveyed the boat. I couldn’t turn it on though. There was no steering wheel, no key, and it was out of fuel so bummer there. I could have just rammed my way out through those bars! Or died trying. _

_ At this point I think I’d rather die than continue this dreadful life here. _

____________________________

Izuku tries to be optimistic but his optimism is waning.

Kacchan doesn’t like him anymore. Neither do his other preschool friends or his teacher. Izuku still hangs out with them trying to be their friend, trying to show them that being quirkless doesn’t mean he is different. What was so different from how he was before. He was quirkless when they were friends too so why does it being defined do change anything? To Kacchan it seems to mean a lot. They are five now. Kacchan gave Izuku a new nickname from Izu. He says his name can be read as “Deku” which means useless. That’s super duper mean and Kacchan got the whole class calling him that!

Izuku’s optimism is waning but at least he still has Mommy. Daddy left a year ago. Izuku still feels really hurt about that. He still remembers Daddy’s harsh words on that note he left for Mommy. Mommy is sad about Izuku’s quirklessness so he tries really really hard to make a quirk appear. He tries to breathe fire like Daddy could. He huffs and puffs and blows until he passes out. Mommy tells him to stop but he has to be able to do it! Daddy would come back! Mommy would be happy! Kacchan would be his friend again!

So he can’t breathe fire like Daddy can then he tries to attract small objects to him like Mommy can.

He tries on his toys. On pencils. On pennies. On the smallest piece of lint. He sits them in a row in his room and stares at them so hard until his eyes force close. He thinks so hard about it until his head hurts. He holds his hands out to them and tries to imagine them coming to him but they. Just. won’t. Budge!

So he can’t attract small objects to him like Mommy can then he will try to combine them together? Maybe attracting fire? 

He waits for Mommy to start the stove. He peeks out from behind the wall, hiding when she turns around for an ingredient. And then he turns back and reaches out for the flames. He wills them to him. They flicker. They flicker! Oh, wait. Fire flickers anyways. Come on! Izuku flops down against the wall and covers his eyes panting. His mother hears it and comes over. She frowns sadly. “Izuku, were you trying that again?” she asks. The five year old doesn’t look up at his mother. He doesn’t want to see that look of disappointment in her eyes. A sigh from above. Mommy crouches by him and pats his head. “I already said it’s okay, Izuku. You are fine just as you are.”

Viridian eyes peek out. Mommy smiles. “I love you.” Izuku grins sneakily. “I love you…. More!” “Ah! You got me!” Mommy throws her hands up. “Well then. I guess I just love you the most.” “I love Mommy to infinity and beyond!” Izuku chirps. He giggles when she ruffles his hair. “I guess I’ll let you win this time. Come on, help Mommy set the table.”

Mommy helps Izuku stay optimistic. At least she loves him still. Mommy hasn’t left him.

A couple of weeks later Izuku is ready for dinner to be over. “I’m going to the computer!” he announces. Mommy laughs. At this point he knows the password to the computer. Izuku goes to his room and grabs a notebook. Recently he got into studying heroes and writing notes about them. They are all in crayon and not even he can read them well but he knows what he writes well enough. He sits on the big chair and logs onto the computer. The most recent tab Mommy had open is still up. Izuku tilts his head, trying to read it.

“Izuku!” Mommy slams open the door to the room in a panic. He swings around. “What was on that computer?” she asks hurriedly. The greenette shrugged, tilting his head. He looks back. “Wai-” “Orpaneege? He reads. “What is an orpaneege, Mommy?” The woman rushes in and closes it down. “It’s nothing, Izuku. It’s just really big adult stuff that you don’t need to worry about. Here, let me open your Herocam.”

Izuku shrugs. He supposes it doesn’t matter. Mommy knows what she is doing and he has his heroes so Izuku lets it slide.

Izuku is very optimistic about this trip Mommy is taking him on. She told him to back his bags and helped him. “Why do I need so much clothes?” Izuku asks. “We will be gone for a bit,” Mommy responds. “Mommy packed that much too. Did you get your favorite toys and your notebooks?” “Yes, ma’am!” He gave a mock salute. Mommy giggled and ruffled his hair. “Good boy. Come on, we have a long trip.”

And a long trip they certainly did! It was, like, five whole hours! Izuku napped for a few and the rest of the time he was reading through his notebooks. He had just finished going over All Might’s most recent fight in America. He was lucky to have finished his analysis before they left. Izuku kicked his legs as he sat in the back seat of Mommy’s car in his car seat looking out of the window. “Where are we going, Mommy?” he asked for the umpteenth time. She smiled up in the mirror. “It’s a secret, Izu.” The greenette pouted.

Five hours away from their house they entered a city. “Almost there!” Mommy announced. Excitement bubbled in his chest. Izuku wriggled in his car seat.  _ I wonder what it is! A park? An amusement park? I’ve heard of those! Is it a pool? A super duper fancy hotel? I wanna knoooooow! _ Finally the car came to a halt at the end of a street corner. Izuku looked out and read the nearest building’s sign. He recognized that word!

“It’s the orpaneege!” he squealed happily. Truth be told, he had been a bit curious about Mommy’s mysterious search on the computer for the past week but like the good little boy Midoriya Izuku is he didn’t try to look it up on his next screen time. Even if he had wanted to it isn’t like he knew how to spell it and something tells him he was saying it wrong too. What? He’s five! “That’s right, Izuku,” Mommy chirped back. “The orphanage!”  _ Ah, so I did say it wrong.  _ He puckered his lips. “Ooooorphanage.” Mommy giggled. “Come on, let’s go in.”

“Welcome to Caring Arms Orphanage,” a woman greeted at the front desk. Izuku, being the excited little boy he is, bounced right up to her. “We’re on a trip!” She froze. The woman stared down at him with pretty purple eyes. She pursed her lips for a second before she smiled again. “Is that so?” Izuku nodded wildly. “Alright, Izuku, why don’t you go wait while I take care of some paperwork real quick?” Mommy suggested.

Miss Purple Eyes nodded. “If you go down that hall there you will find a bunch of kids in a room playing. There should be a window big enough for you to see in.” Izuku looked back at Mommy. She nodded. “Go on.”

Izuku beamed. “Okay!” he waved and trotted off.

____________________________

“No offense,” the woman at the front desk started once Izuku had scampered off, “but I really don’t like the way you are choosing to break this to your child.”

Inko’s smile finally fell. She let out a long bedraggled sigh. “Please don’t lecture me. I am just here to drop him off,” Inko looked at her name tag, “Ms. Suzuki.” Ms. Suzuki had long straight purple hair and purple eyes. She shook her head and pulled out a few documents. “You must be Midoriya Inko and Izuku, right? You called a few days ago.” Inko nodded. “He doesn’t know what is going on, does he?” “No. He’s a smart boy though,” Inko said. “He’ll figure it out.”

“Heartless,” Ms. Suzuki commented. “Even if you didn’t have the money to take care of him you could have told him.” Inko grit her teeth. “Excuse me but I don’t believe it is your job to say all of this. You must be new here. Now, may I please fill out the required papers?”

Inko sat down in the lobby area filling out the papers. She watched as a couple of men walked out and came back in with Izuku’s belongings. She had to tell them a few times which were hers. Yes, Inko did feel bad to some degree. Izuku was her baby boy and she did love him but in the year since Hisashi left Inko has felt growing resentment towards her son. She knows it will only fester and cause a rift between them. Izuku would be better off with a different family and then Inko could go and find Hisashi. Actually, that is why she packed her belongings too. A few things went on behind the scenes that Izuku was not aware of. One, Inko sold the house. Today was their last day in it. Movers were currently moving things out that she had already sold as well. Two, she called Hisashi. True to his word he did not change his phone number and welcomed her to come to America. She is catching a plane after this. Three, Inko unenrolled Izuku out of his kindergarten class. And four, Inko quit her job, yesterday being her last day.

She would start anew in America with Hisashi. Perhaps she would bear a son with a quirk. Maybe she would not and just get her tubes tied so Hisashi would not leave her again.

Inko finished the paperwork and went back to the front desk. She slid it over to Ms. Suzuki.”I believe I finished everything else online?” Ms. Suzuki nodded. “Correct. I am sure you read everything but you do know that if you come back for him and he is not here anymore or has been adopted you can’t get him back unless he is still here and available for adoption.”

“I understand.”

“Would you like to say goodbye?”

Inko shook her head. “No thank you. I will be taking my leave now.” Inko swiftly turned around and walked out of the door of the orphanage. “I hope you are happy,” she heard Ms. Suzuki huff. Inko grit her teeth.  _ I will be when I get to America. _

And with that, Midoriya Inko left Japan forever leaving her five year old son behind none the wiser to how drastically his life would change.

____________________________

Izuku cracked open the door. The sound of children laughing and playing filtered in the air. Children of all ages and sizes and quirks. A couple brooded in the corner looking sad or angry but for the most part it seemed like a happy place. There were toys and blocks and a small plastic slide and everything. It was just like kindergarten aside from the bigger kids here and there. But it wasn’t kindergarten. After all, why would Mommy bring him to a new kindergarten so far away from home for their special trip?

“Hello there,” a man’s voice greeted. Izuku looked up to meet a tall man with short brown hair and soft green eyes. “Are you new here?” Izuku shrugged. “Mommy is doing adult stuff right now so I’m waiting for her here,” he said. “The pretty lady at the front desk told me to come back here.”

For some reason the man’s eyes looked sad. “Oh? Well how about you go play with the other children for now, okay? I’m Mr. Tanaka if you need me.” Izuku nodded. “Thank you!”

He scampered off into the crowd of children. Well, “crowd.” More like fifteen or sixteen but Izuku is still working on counting so forgive him if he has a child’s exaggerated mind. Izuku felt the stares of the other children on him. A few looked sad, stopping their playing. They looked at him with pity and understanding that children shouldn’t know how to express yet. It was confusing to Izuku. A small group waved him over, two girls and a boy.

Izuku decided right then and there that he wouldn’t tell them about his quirklessness. He wouldn’t know them for long anyway.

“So why are you here?” Ren, one of the girls, asked as he helped them build a tower with blocks. Izuku picked up a red one and sized it up to a blue one. “I’m on a trip with Mommy,” he said innocently. Tadao chuckled. “My old dad said that too.” Izuku furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the boy. “What do you mean?” “I mean that my dad told me we were going on a trip and then dropped me off here and left.”

Something similar to worry begins to spin in Izuku’s stomach. “Th- that’s bad! Why would he do that?!” Everyone in the room flinched. With a loud sigh a boy, maybe a teenager or something, walked over. “Minus well just break the news. Kid, you don’t know what an orphanage is, do you?” Izuku shook his head. “An orphanage is a place parents who don’t want their children anymore drop them off to be somebody else’s problem. Everyone you see here is what they call an orphan. We don’t have parents, kid.”

Izuku paled.

\-----

_ ‘Orpaneege? What is an orpaneege, Mommy?’ _

\-----

He scrambled to his feet. “B- but Mommy said it was a trip! It’s special!” He looked around wildly. No one would meet his eyes. Tadao waved him. “C- come on, Izuku, you’re just like the rest of us! You’ll be fi-” “No!” Izuku screamed and ran out of the room. He bolted down the hall back to where Mommy should be- No, where Mommy  _ is waiting _ . 

“Mommy?!” Izuku burst into the lobby. He looked around. Mommy wasn’t there.  _ No… NO! She said she wouldn’t leave me! _

That purple haired lady came over and knelt by him. “Izuku? Is that right?” Wide, scared viridian eyes looked at her in anguish.  _ Manners, Izuku. _ He nodded shakily. “My name is Ms. Suzuki. I know you are scared right now but I need you to listen to me carefully. Your mother is not coming back.” Tears slowly fell from his eyes. “We will be taking care of you from now on.”

Izuku is a very optimistic child but please forgive him if he is a little less optimistic after today.

\-----

_ ‘I love you.’ _

_ ‘I love you more!’ _

_ ‘I love you most!’ _

_ ‘I love you to infinity and beyond!’ _

\-----

Izuku stared out at the children in the playroom again as he reentered and it was written all over his face. His group of three new friends sadly waved him over and placed a few blocks in his hands. They said nothing, just continued to playing. Izuku stared numbly at the blocks in his hands.

_ You said you loved me, Mommy… _

____________________________

**Entry #4 - Yua**

_ I’m trying something new. I’m trying to get on Granny’s and Grandpa’s good side. I try to talk to them when they come down. I dance around them and smile widely and giggle. None of my smiles are real anymore. It’s all acting. But it’s working. _

_ I was taken out of the basement once. They let me walk around the first floor. Granny plays piano which I didn’t know. She’s not too good at it though. Her eyes aren’t as good as they once were and her bones are old. It’s harder for her to play. I tried to go on the second floor and they flipped like a switch though. Grandpa has a cane, by the way, and it hurts. I woke up in the basement again with a throbbing headache.  _

_ Note to self, don’t try to go to the second floor. _


	3. You're Coming Back Right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku doesn't quite understand his new situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone?

**Entry #5 - Yua**

_ I got a picture with Granny and Grandpa today. They are getting really friendly with me the more I try to get on their good side. When they brought me out of the basement again I saw my picture with them on the wall. There was also one of just me very big. I am starting to get worried. Time is ticking and they seem to be getting restless around me. I hope it is for a good reason though. I am trying to be optimistic in my situation. _

_ Something tells me I shouldn’t get too optimistic. _

____________________________

Izuku is trying to be optimistic still.

Mommy might come back. It’s a possibility! It’s not a high probability much like the chances of him getting a quirk but it is still there, right? And the other children at the orphanage don’t treat him  _ bad _ per se. They don’t treat him like how he was treated back at his old kindergarten but they started to ignore him.

It started alright, Izuku supposes. They tried to make friends with him. Izuku was depressed for the first week or so but he is a little kid and some things just make him excited such as play time. He also learned pretty quickly how to hide his depression. He saved his crying for bedtime. So he tried to make friends back with those who tried to make friends with him. At play time he would wander to them and they would let him play with them.

And then they found out that he is quirkless. The first thing responded to his revealing of his condition was: “Oh, so that’s why she got rid of you.” And if that didn’t hurt Izuku when he was already down, fresh from abandonment from Mommy, then he doesn’t know what does. They begin to avoid Izuku. They would never bully or hurt him like Kacchan would because they are from the same boat having been abandoned but they made it obvious they didn’t want to play with him anymore.

“Why not?” Izuku asked.

Tadao averted his eyes. “Look, no offense but you’re quirkless. You probably won’t get adopted but we have a chance. I just don’t want to get attached or you to get attached to me if we are going to be pulled apart anyway. Just go play somewhere else.”

Adoption. Izuku found out more about what it means to be an orphan. To be adopted means for a family to come and take them home to be part of their family, to be a new Mommy and Daddy to the children dropped off here. Izuku wondered if what Tadao said was true. Did no one really want him? Why? Because he was quirkless? Will Izuku be here forever? He didn’t necessarily want to be adopted at first. He didn’t want any other Mommy than his Mommy. He missed Mommy so bad! He wanted her to come back and take him home again and say that “Nooooo I love you more, Izu!” Izuku didn’t want to be adopted.

But families came. He got into the swing of things. He noticed that the giant window in the play room was there for a reason. When families came in to potentially adopt one of the children Ms. Suzuki would show them the children playing and tell them about them, pointing out the ones the family already was looking at on the orphanage’s website or the files when they arrived. They would come in and sometimes play with a child, get to know them. The first time Izuku saw one of his fellow orphans get adopted he felt… jealous. That family had come to see Ren a few times over the course of two months before finally getting her. Ren looked so happy and so  _ loved _ and Izuku wanted that. He wanted to be loved too but every time a new family visited he could almost see the exact moment they found out he was quirkless. Their eyes would become uninterested and move on. Izuku hated it!

_ Love me too! Look at me too! Play with me too! I’m not much different! I can laugh and play and smile and do everything they can do too! LoVe Me! _

At one point, a family did visit with Izuku. They sat down with him as he was playing with his All Might figure in the corner alone and played with him too. He thought it was going so well. He tried his hardest to appeal to them. Izuku agreed with everything the family said. He was polite, minded his manners, didn’t show a single ounce of sadness or anger or anything that should have turned them away. They left with smiles and then… a week later they visited with another child and didn’t even spare Izuku a single glance! They ended up adopting that child instead.

Izuku saw many children leave Caring Arms Orphanage and many come. He watched the distraught faces of new orphans when they found out they had been abandoned. Some came in already knowing it, not having been randomly left here like Izuku had been.

Izuku supposes that it wasn’t all bad at Caring Arms. Ms. Suzuki was nice. All of the adults were nice to him. He knows for the most part it is them just doing their jobs but Ms. Suzuki was really nice! Every once in a while she will come in and play with him.

“So what are we doing today, Izuku?” she plops down beside him. Izuku holds up All Might. “Heroes!” “Alright! My favorite!” Izuku likes Ms. Suzuki. He really does.

“Why can’t you just adopt me?” he whispered as she got up to leave. M. Suzuki’s face fell. “Oh, Izuku, I’m sorry. I’m just a volunteer in college still. I can’t afford a child right now but I’ll play with you for as long as you are here!” The greenette’s grip on his All Might figure got tighter. He studied that smile on his toy’s face. He studied it until he could replicate it. He would be as optimistic as All Might is. He will get adopted. He just knows it.

Izuku’s sixth and seventh birthday’s passed in Caring Arms Orphanage. It was ‘celebrated’. Everyone’s was celebrated at some point. They were sat in the dining hall which is just a really long table that they sit in and are served food. Everyone got a cupcake and Izuku’s had a candle that he blew out when they sang to him but that was it. The orphanage didn’t have money for gifts for every single birthday or room to store them. It made Izuku miss home again. He missed Mommy singing to him, cuddling him, the presents. He missed Daddy lifting him into the air and spinning around. He missed Kacchan and the others coming over for a party. He missed the streamers and lights and balloons. Izuku missed a lot of things about home though and he supposes birthday’s were just to be added to that ever expanding list. 

A few months after his seventh birthday, Ms. Suzuki entered his sleeping quarters. The boy’s and girl’s were separate but the boys shared a room and the girls shared a room with each having their own cots. They kept all of their clothes and belongings tin the suitcases they originally arrived at the orphanage with.

“Izuku, I’m afraid you are being moved to another orphanage today,: she said sadly. The little boy looked up at her in shock from his cot. “Wh- what?! Why?! I haven’t been adopted yet!” She nods. “That is just it. You haven’t been adopted. No one in this area wants you so they are moving you to another one to provide you more chances to get adopted.” Izuku grabs her arm. “N- no! You adopt me then! Please!” She gently pried his hands from her. “I’m sorry, Izuku.”

\-----

_ ‘I’m sorry, Izuku! I’m so, so sorry!’ _

\-----

His hands fell to his sides. He stared at this woman in shock. Ms. Suzuki would be graduating soon. That was her reason for not adopting him, right? Because she was in college? Why couldn’t he stay for a few more months and then she adopt him after she graduated? Why?! But Izuku knows why. Izuku is quirkless. Ms. Suzuki doesn’t  _ want _ a defective child. It’s the same reason every family that came to the orphanage didn’t adopt him. It’s the same reason that all of the children here are ones that have come after him because the ones that were here before him have all gone on to be adopted, welcomed into warm, loving families.

_ Love me too… Love me too! Love me too!!!  _

So Izuku grabs his belongings and trudges out of Caring Arms Orphanage. He knows what the workers there are thinking. It was stressful trying so hard to get at least a single family to sit with him. Now he was out of their hair. Izuku is taken to another orphanage a few hours away: Merry Orphans. But he doesn’t feel merry. But he will try his best to be. It’s a new place, a new city, a new group of families to have the chances to come and look at him like some toy in a shop.

Izuku will be… optimistic, he supposes.

____________________________

**Entry #6 - Yua**

_ Another kid joined me! Another kid came! Her name is Madaline. What a pretty name. I think she is foreign. Her Japanese isn’t the best either. But it is good to have company. We have to share the room and bed and bathroom bucket and I hated having to explain how things go here to her but she wasn’t very down about it. After all, we are the rejected orphans. We’ve been at rock bottom from the start. _

_ Madaline is a year older than me, sixteen. She’s pretty. Her quirk allows her to pop her eyes out of her head. She is blind when she does that and it hurts when her eyes are touched so she doesn’t do that much.  _

_ On a side note, Granny and Grandpa have been down in the basement a lot lately but not to bring me up for some reason. I hear what I think is the iron maiden a lot. It’s scary when I hear it closing and opening. I think they are working on it but I don’t know what for. I don’t think I should be worried though. After all, Granny and Grandpa are smitten with me. Soon enough I should be moved to the real house at this rate. _

_ Yet, the iron maiden makes me worried. _


	4. New Person

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku is being rotated in the system and the more he is rotated the more he rotates his personality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone?

**Entry #7 - Madaline**

_ Yua’s dead. This is Madaline. I saw Yua writing in this diary a lot. I didn’t know we were allowed to keep a journal. She hid it so probably not. I had only been here a week when ‘Granny’ and ‘Grandpa’ killed her. I had to watch. She screamed all the way being dragged to the iron maiden. I tried to fight them and save her. They broke her legs with the bat. _

_ I don’t think I will ever forget the sound of her screams when she was impaled in that box or the squish and sound of flowing blood or the way the crimson seeped out of it and formed a puddle on the floor. I don’t know why she was killed. Is that what they mean by “The End of the Line”? Will I be killed too? _

_ Not if I can help it. _

____________________________

Izuku is optimistic again.

Izuku started back at public school again now at the new orphanage. At Caring Arms he was more or less homeschooled? So were all of the orphans there under the age of eight. It was easier to homeschool them. Now eight years old at Merry Orphans Izuku attends the second grade.

He’s gotten a bit smarter. While he can’t hide his quirklessness from families that visit the orphanage because it is on his legal records, he can from the clueless students at his school. So that is what he does. Izuku claims to have an analysis quirk. It is easy enough to fake. He is rather smart for his age he found out, almost always ranking in the top five in his grade on exams, usually actually the top two.

He’s started a small rivalry for the top spot with Judo from school for the top spot. Izuku has to claim it if his ‘analysis quirk’ is to be taken seriously. 

He also hides that he is an orphan. Bullies are still a thing, sadly, but with a fake quirk it isn’t as bad. It just so happens that his ‘quirk’ is what causes them. He’s the ‘nerdy kid’ at school so the bigger kids push him around during recess. Luckily it is only elementary school so nothing too bad happens but something in him hurts inside still. He is faking his identity because he knows his true self would be rejected. Izuku hates that this fake him is the only him that is accepted. It is a cruel reminder when families visit the orphanage and still don’t want him. They know he is quirkless, an orphan. They are the cruel reminder of the self he hides at school.

Those around his age at the orphanage don’t speak to him at school. That don’t at the orphanage either but at school it is a bit different. No one at school knows there is any orphans attending that school. It is like a silent rule to hide the fact that you are an orphan. What would they do if they got bullied for it? Cry to their mommies? Ha. 

But with this new persona Izuku has made at school he is optimistic for his time in this city. If he thinks logically, he won’t be adopted and probably will end up being moved to another orphanage after a year or two. He only has to hold out until then and then he can create a new him at the next school. In order to do that, though, he has to study hard. Izuku uses the Midoriya last name in school still no matter how much it hurts him and reminds him of his past family. It is necessary to hide his orphan title. He studies hard. While all of the other orphans play and do whatever it is they do, he sits in the corner alone and studies. He does extra credit work on top of his homework. He needs to be the top in class.

His optimism is slowly turning to pessimism.

_ Oh, there goes another one. _ Izuku’s face is calculatedly happy as he and the other orphans wave goodbye to another one adopted. “Bye! Have a happy life! Live happily with your family! We are so proud of you and happy for you!”  _ Take me. Take me! I don’t care if it is to torture me or anything! Just want me! WaNt Me! WANT ME! _

…

…

…

_ Look at me. _ The new family enters the orphanage. _ Look at me! _ Izuku sits in the corner with his textbooks. The family sits with a different child.  _ L.o.o.k.a.t.m.e. NO, don’t you dare leave. Come back. Come back and see me! Love me! Want me! Just look in my general direction! It will be enough! Acknowledge that I am here!!!!! _

“Izuku.” “Hmm.” “You are being moved to another orphanage today.” “Oh. Really?”  _ Wait, that’s not right. _ Izuku looks up with a confused smile. “Oh? W- wait, what? I am?”  _ There we go. That sounds better, right? _ Mr. Lewis nods. “Don’t worry, I am sure you will find a family in that orphanage.”  _ Been there. Heard that.  _ “Oh… O- okay. I’ll get my things.”

He wants to drag his feet as he leaves, a single suitcase following him. He has downsized a lot. All he has left is enough clothes for a week and a few days, his notebooks, pencils, and that oh so special All Might figure. It reminds him to smile. All might always smiles. All Might is always happy. All Might is always OpTiMiStIc.

_ Be optimistic, Izuku. It’ll be better at this new one! _ He turns and waves to the orphans that had to come out under obligation as he left. None of them will meet his eyes.  _ Look at me… Someday I’ll make you look at me!!! _

_ Ah. Be optimistic Izuku.  _ He smiles. And waves. And moves on to the next orphanage.

____________________________

**Entry #8 - Madaline**

_ There is a box in the basement across from our room. I couldn’t get it open so I moved on to other measures. I snuck upstairs to the first floor and made it to the bathroom. I searched and searched for anything to help aid in my escape. In the end, I found a key in the bathroom mirror cabinet. I pocketed it just in time to turn around and see Granny. My memory is hazy after that. _

_ She broke my arm. Sorry if this is sloppy. I am not ambidextrous. The key I found out goes to the boat. About a week later Grandpa realized it was missing. I blacked out for a long time after he beat me for taking it. _

_ But I found it again. I don’t know if it is because they are old and senile but it was back in the first floor bathroom. I won’t take it this time. I need to find more parts to get out. I will escape. _


	5. Solid Lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku's struggle continues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone?

**Entry #9 - Madaline**

_ So there is another kid here. Akito, he said his name was. Only twelve. I could be seventeen by now but I’m not sure at this point. How do I explain to him the torturous life we will live here. I recruited him. Akito is going to help me get pieces of the boat. He’s smaller than me. He can move quicker and dodge more.  _

_ We can do this. _

____________________________

Izuku is nine years old and he is… on the pessimistic side of optimism.

He was only at Merry Orphans for about half a year and he was moved. Was it really that bad? Were they really that eager to move him along?  _ It’s not like there are a million orphanages in Japan, you know?! You can’t send me on forever!  _ He paces the room in the boy’s room. Everyone went to play. He didn’t. He didn’t care to. Not when he is like this. He’s waning. He needs to calm himself down, put on a smile. Then he can face them all in case there is a family out there. Can’t have them seeing him go crazy like this now can we? No no no! Izuku has to be O to the P to the T-I-M-I-S-T-I-C! OPTIMISTIC! “Right, All Might?!” he grins down at his figurine. “RIGHT?!”

_ There aren’t a million orphanages in Japan but there is a limit to how long I can be in them, right? They kick you out on the streets when you turn 18. In order to actually make a living you  _ have _ to get adopted. Your family sets you up for life, not boots you to the street to fend for yourself once you hit adulthood. But oooooh in order to be adopted you have to be loveable. I’m loveable, right? Apparently freaking not! Cause I’m quirkless! Quirkless this, quirkless that. I’m still human!  _ He whips around to the doll, slapping his hand to his chest. “You see me, right, All Might?! You see me!”

Izuku is on the… crazy side of optimism. He started middle school at nine years old. He was bumped up a grade for his brains. It really helps solidify his classmates’ idea that he has an analysis quirk even though it is fake. He starts anew at this new school in this new city where he is now an orphan at Joy Bells Orphanage. He is at the top of his class. There is an actual kid with an actual analysis quirk here.

He almost ruined everything!

He could tell that Izuku’s ‘quirk’ was fake because he was the real deal. He got jealous when Izuku got the first place above him even without a quirk and tried to tell the whole school Izuku was a fraud and, well, Izuku couldn’t have him doing that now could he? The kids at this school thought he had a quirk and because they thought that they  _ saw  _ him. They  _ looked _ at him. They  _ acknowledged _ him. Izuku  _ existed _ here. So he did what any person would naturally do when their wellbeing was being threatened.

He pulled the kid to the back of the school yard and beat the living daylights out of him!

Of course, the kid didn’t say anything, Izuku made sure of that. People began to look at him as though he was the fraud and not Izuku because how could the number one in the school  _ not _ have an analysis quirk? Izuku did a real number on mister number two and made him vow to always stay one rank below him in their exam scores.

He brings his test scores back to the orphanage and they hang them up on the Achievements Board but Izuku’s never stay up for long. Why not? Everyone else’s stay up for much longer than his did. _ Mako learned to ride a bike? I learned college algebra in under a week! Isn’t that much more amazing?! Don’t you love that?! Aren’t you proud?! _

Izuku hates this so much. It’s so tiring. He waves goodbye to another orphan. Since when did he stop bothering to learn their names. He smiles.  _ It’ll be mine turn next! A family will come for me! They’ll look at me and smile at me and see me and LoVe me and say ‘I love you more’ and I’ll say ‘I love you most’ and they’ll say ‘I love you to infinity and beyond’ and it will be PeRfEcT! _

_ I- it will so… _ He watches the orphan leave ... _ come back for me, okay? _

“Izuku.”  _ No… _ “I’m sorry but-”  _ It’s only been six months  _ “-you are leaving the orphanage today. I’m SuRe YoU wILL fInD a FaMiLy In ThE nExT oNe.”

____________________________

**Entry #10 - Akito**

_ Um hello? I’ve never written a diary before. I’m Akito though I guess you already know that, huh, diary? Diary sounds weird just calling you that. I could give you a name! Like, um, you know, Scrappy? Scrappy! Cause scrap paper! Yeah! _

_ Ah, well, I guess you are probably wondering what happened to Madaline, huh, Scrappy? She’s, um, died. I’m sorry… I couldn’t save her. She was so nice to me too! She showed me the bathroom on the first floor once! I’ve only been here a week but she was so nice. She was like a big sister. _

_ Then they killed her. I don’t like Granny and Grandpa. I don’t like how they killed her. Madaline told me about the iron maiden, that’s what she called it. They used that. It was so scary! She screamed! She was in so much pain! I can still hear it. Make it stop! _

_ I don’t like it here. _

_ I read Yua’s writings. She seemed nice too. She was killed too. What is that word? A trend? If so am I next? No, no, no! Madaline said she was working to get out! There is a key in the first floor bathroom to the boat below. I won’t let big sis Madaline down! I’ll get out! _

_ This is Akito, signing out, Scrappy. _


	6. Passing On Wisdom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku makes a new friend!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone doing on this fine day?

**Entry #11 - Kubo**

_ Akito is dead. This is Kubo. Akito had amnesia from getting hit too hard in the head by ‘Grandpa.’ He forgot to search after that and didn’t leave much but he was so insistent on me reading this journal. I see why now. ‘Grandpa’ knocked him so hard when he had a brain injury already and he would forget every few days. I hate that that is the only name I have to call him. As far as I know, ‘Granny’ and ‘Grandpa’ aren’t loving grandparental figures at all. I won’t tell you what happened to Akito because if you are reading this you probably already know. My days are limited. Kazumi has already come. Hi, Kazumi, if you are reading this after I’m gone. _

_ I’ve spent my six months here conspiracizing. That is right, six months. Let me tell you what I have found out. I first heard of this ‘orphanage’ in my last orphanage. It is where the unwanted of the unwanted children come. Having been moved to so many orphanages that it is obvious we are unwanted and deemed a menace to society, they send us here. Now, as it is called an orphanage we can still be adopted here. This place is common knowledge in the adoption field. The general public just doesn’t know what happens if we don’t get adopted within the six months we are allotted here which is death and they don’t particularly care for us either to adopt us because we are ‘so bad’ as to make it here: the end of the line. _

_ I heard it in the car as I was being driven here about the six months. The two taking me were groaning about having to be the one to take me and about how I would only be alive six months longer. I knew well beforehand about the impending death. _

_ I know I am not fed every day so I count by the times ‘Grandpa’ comes to feed me. About three feedings in, I found this journal. I know I can’t do this alone. I’ve gone around trying to find things, anything to open the front door. I made it to the second floor of the main house. Let me lay it out for you as far as I know. The stairs to it lead into a kitchen. There is a hallway to the left of that. On the left wall of the hallway is a picture. I accidentally hit it off on the way back which is what got me caught but behind that was an electrical panel. I think that if you had the correct tool you could cut it and disable the electricity in the house and that means the front door electric wires. Now, you would have to do this either last or just before removing the boards on the front door and the cage over it. Now, how do you do that? I don’t know about the cage but to the right in the hall is a guest room. At the end of that hall is a kitchen and if you immediately turn to the right you will find a couple of boxes on the floor hiding a hole into the vents that lead into that guest room. I crawled inside when I heard ‘Granny’ coming. I found a crow bar. _

_ That crow bar can be used to pry off the boards on the front door. I got caught with it by knocking off the picture in the hall. I went back after healing up and got it though. A week is all I had with it. That and the boat key from previous writings in this diary, Scrappy as Akito called it. I’ve opened the box in the basement right across from our room. It has a spark plug to a boat. I only know that because in my boredom at other orphanages I studied a lot of mechanical things hoping to make a living one day. Well, here I am. Guess that isn’t happening. Either way, through some experimenting I decided to see how long it would take from ‘Granny’ and ‘Grandpa’ to start noticing their hidden items are missing. It takes about a week and either by old age or luck they always return to the same place. _

_ Kazumi, or whoever tries the next attempt, you have the week with your next kid to convince them to get out and help you before your time is up and that iron maiden closes the door on your life.  _

_ Kazumi, I know you think I am crazy. As far as you’ve seen me I’ve been in this corner writing for the past few days like a mad man. I haven’t said a word to you. I don’t want you to get attached when I know I am about to die. They show the new kids the deaths of the older kids to dwindle their will and hope to escape. Don’t let it happen to you when you witness my death, Kazumi. You must fight. Even if you cannot get out you must. For the sake of those to come after you, please use this journal and write what you find. For the record, you were a great roommate. _

_ This is Kubo, signing off, Scrappy. _

____________________________

Izuku is… running down. His optimism levels are low. His tank is running on empty. He’s trying his best. His grades are the top of the class again, yippee! His fake persona and fake quirk are hiding him again, yippee! He is an orphan at Bright Skies Orphanage, yippee!

Izuku is… sad? He tries not to be. He sits in the corner and waits. And waits. And waits. The adults taking care of the orphans are getting worried because all he does is sit and smile and wait or sit and smile and read. Families want a happy child, right? It’s better to be happy, right? Izuku can do happy. He might not feel happy but he can do happy because if he does happy then a family will surely come and look at him and want him and love him and then he will do more than just do happy, Izuku will be happy. So he will do happy.

Something is a bit different at this orphanage though. The adults aren’t really looking at him. Like. At all. They avoid him. He brings his grades back and they won’t post them on the board. His teeth birthday? Not celebrated. Sometimes he is even forgotten to be served his food in the dining hall and he has to go up and ask. 

_ Is this it? Am I so unwanted that even the adults won’t do their jobs to take care of me?  _ Izuku thinks what he is feeling is different from pessimism. It’s despair. What would he do now? How much harder did he have to try?!

“Everyone, this is your new friend, Hitoshi.” Mr. Watanabe gestured to the kid as they were all lined up to greet the newcomer. Izuku stood at the back, like always. He grinned like always. The new kid had also been transferred from an orphanage because no one in that city wanted him. He had tall purple hair that seemed to defy gravity and deep bags under his purple eyes. Izuku’s first thought was:  _ Wow, he won’t be wanted if he doesn’t look happy. _

No one in the orphanage used their last names from before they became orphans so Hitoshi it was but he was previously known as Shinsou HItoshi. Izuku noticed a similar pattern in the newcomer. The adults didn’t pay attention to him either. How many orphanages did HItoshi have to go through to begin getting ignored too?

Izuku sat in the corner of the playroom just like always, studying, working on his smile, talking to All Might. He glanced over at Hitoshi who was on the other side of the room in a corner by himself as well. It was different from the others avoiding him because he was a lost cause like quirkless Izuku. Hitoshi has a quirk but they are afraid of it. Brainwashing, Izuku thinks it was. At least he has one!

Hitoshi was in his grade, sixth. They were the same age too, eleven. Izuku passed him at school. Every once in a while they would make eye contact. Izuku stood proudly before the board that the exam ranking were posted on. His name was first, of course. “Of course, it’s Midoriya!” “He’s got an analysis quirk after all.” “That has to be cheating using your quirk for it.” “It’s passive, I hear, so he can’t turn it off.” Izuku raised his head as his friends, acquaintances, patted his back and congratulated him. They saw him. Maybe not the real him but that is fine.  _ Look at me. See me. I’m here! I exist! I exist!!! _

He caught Hitoshi’s eyes as he weaved through the crowd. The purple haired boy seemed to be confused by the rumors about Izuku and how he was called by a last name and how he apparently had a quirk. Izuku averted his eyes. 

Hitoshi was beginning to be bullied for his quirk at school. It was strange seeing it the other way around, being bullied for a quirk and not for lack thereof. He felt a bit angry at the other students for bullying Hitoshi.  _ Maybe if he would smile more it would go better! _ Izuku was counting down his time at the orphanage. He thinks he probably has about a month left or less. Can’t be too many more eligible adopters to decide not to want him so he should be moving orphanages soon. Maybe he would pass down some wisdom to this HItoshi fellow.

“What are you going to do, huh? Brainwash us like a villain?” Izuku turned the corner on the bullying scene. Hitoshi was pushed back against a wall, head down. His fists were tight, shaking. “Come o, prove it to us, villain! Say something!”

Izuku remembered the way Kacchan treated him. It made his blood boil. Izuku shook himself from the memories though. He tries hard not to remember that place. It hurts. He puts on his signature grin and walks up. “Hey, hey, hey, guys! What are you doing?” Izuku waves. The bullies turn to him. “Oh, Midoriya,” Suburo, the main bully, looked over at him. “We were just teaching the new kid a lesson on how things work in this school. You know, the works.” “Ah,” Izuku hummed. He walked up and stopped beside them. He caught Hitoshi glaring up at him. Izuku gave a quick wink.

“How about we don’t do that, hmm?” he suggested. “I think he’s learned his lesson so why don’t you let him go, Suburo.” “Ha? Why would I?” Izuku’s grin got wider, crazed almost. It sent shivers down the spines of everyone nearby. “Suburo. Let him go.  _ Okay? _ ”

Izuku smirked as the bullies stormed off. He heard it huffed under Suburo’s breath.: “I swear that kid’s a freaking psychopath…”

Izuku turned back to Hitoshi. “Sorry about them. They shouldn’t try it again.” Hitoshi scoffed and brushed himself off. “Don’t care,” he grumbled. “Don’t expect a thank you. You’re a freaking liar going around this school the way you are.” Izuku shrugged. “You do you, I guess, but if you want them to stop bullying you then stick with me. It’ll at least make your school life better.”

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch,” Izuku assured him. “Just, you know, the forgotten have to stick together.” Something in his words must have resonated in Hitoshi’s heart because he did end up hanging around Izuku more often at school. Izuku let him join him and his friends at lunch too and through that Hitoshi met Izuku’s companions and they saw that Hitoshi wasn’t all that bad, not villainous at all. It made Izuku happy. It made him optimistic for Hitoshi’s life in school after he was moved to a new orphanage.

“How’d you do it?” Hitoshi asked.

Izuku looked up from his books in the play room at the orphanage. His mind blanked.  _ Hitoshi came to talk to me? Someone came over to me? Someone sees me here? He willingly came over here?! _ The greenette was quick to recompose his mind. “How did I do what?” he asks. Hitoshi sits by him and looks over the other orphans and his eyes settle on the family in the room talking with Sharna. “You’re quirkless. You’re an orphan. How did you get the whole school wrapped around your finger like that?” Hitoshi asks again.

Izuku hummed. “Oh. That. I guess I was just sick of not being seen?” “Being seen?” “Yeah. So I made myself seen. I worked hard. I created a lie. I made sure that those who tried to out me wouldn’t. That way when a family comes they will see what I can do and they will want me.” Hitoshi deadpanned. “Sorry, Izuku, but no one wants ussss…” he trailed off when Izuku looked at him with crazed eyes. “What are you saying, Hitoshi? Of course someone wants us. Someone out there will want us.” He glanced over at the family and smiled widely. “I’ll make them want me someday.”

____________________________

Hitoshi… is scared. He felt it the first time he heard about ‘Midoriya’ at school. He couldn’t believe that people were claiming this obviously quirkless boy had a quirk. Was it not common knowledge in the school, only at the orphanage? Hitoshi walked the halls and he took note of how some kids, the smart ones, would shy away from Izuku. How the bigger bully-types respected him. How the whole school accepted this lie that he had an analysis quirk. They were all so gullible, leaning into his lies. The other orphans here that attended their school didn’t say anything either. They just looked the other way, mutual respect for someone trying to make best of the poor situation they were in as an orphan.

He felt it at night while his insomnia kept him awake in the boy’s room. Hitoshi and Izuku had the last beds at the very end of the room. Hitoshi used to just sit up and chill to himself but now he lays down and closes his eyes because at night Izuku rocks in his bed staring at this faded, worn out All Might figurine with that same crazed smile until he passed out on his bed.

Hitoshi noticed it in the way that Izuku stares at the families that come in. How he pesters the adults at the orphanage. How when his food is forgotten and he goes up to ask for some he hangs around and tries to get on their caretaker's good side.

Hitoshi noticed all of this and while it scared him he had to admire the green haired boy. Izuku was still fighting for a chance to be adopted. Hitoshi long gave up on it. He was adopted once actually. It was the happiest day of his life, he thinks. But the family that gave him a chance soon got scared once Hitoshi slipped up with his quirk. He didn’t mean to brainwash his ‘sister’! He released her as soon as he did but it was too late. Quick as a whip Hitoshi was back in the orphanage rotation cycle and he knew then that he would never be accepted for who he was. 

At least this time he now has a friend. He’s scared of Izuku and the boy’s strange asphyxiation with being wanted but he at least isn’t alone this time. Hitoshi and Izuku began to spend all of their playroom time together, sat together at meal time, and at school they became attached at the hip. Hitoshi thinks he is placating Izuku in a way. That creepy look in Izuku’s eyes dulled a bit the longer they hung out. Maybe it was because Hitoshi still hung out with him at school even though he is in on the lie. Hitoshi is giving Izuku the attention Izuku needs and Izuku is giving Hitoshi the acceptance even despite his quirk that he needs. Hitoshi likes that Izuku responds to him without fear of being brainwashed. They don’t put together the pieces missing in each other but they do tie them together the best they can.

“Izuku,” Hitoshi looks up as their caretaker walks up to the greenette.  _ No… _ Hitoshi has had this conversation too many times  _ not to know _ how it will go. Izuku is already sliding off of his bed and reaching down for his suitcase. “Sorry, buddy, you’re being moved again.” Again, that crazy smile. Izuku grins up at the man. “It’s fine! I’ll find a family next time!” Their caretaker averts his eyes.

Hitoshi can’t believe this. He finally made a friend and Izuku was being moved! He might be moved to the same orphanage as Izuku in a few months but Izuku would then be moved again soon after and it would just be a repeat of this one! Hitoshi had to at least say goodbye!

“Izuku!” he ran up from the line of orphans just as Izuku was leaving the orphanage. “HitoSHI-!” The purple-haired boy trapped the other in a tight hug. Izuku let out a shuddering breath and Hitoshi understood. He can’t remember the last time he was hugged or has hugged anyone either. “Thank you,” he whispers. Izuku pat his arms. “Hitoshi,’” he pulled back. Izuku smiled at him. “Don’t forget to smile, okay?”

____________________________

Izuku waved through the window of the car he sat in at Hitoshi who stood outside of the orphanage and he is once again optimistic. He thinks he will see Hitoshi at the next orphanage if he correctly assumes this to be a rotation pattern of children. Though it may be a little mean Iuzku doesn’t think Hitoshi will be adopted at this one. Hitoshi doesn’t know how to smile correctly yet to make families like him so Izuku will see him at the next one. If Hitoshi spends his time at this one learning to smile then maybe at the next one Hitoshi will be adopted!

That hug shocked Izuku for real though. He feels his eyes wet but he won’t let the tears fall. He has to smile. Nobody wants a crying, snotty child. Izuku can’t remember the last time he truly cried. At night his eyes get wet as he smiles down at All Might but the tears just never seem to fall correctly. Some would call that unhealthy. Izuku thinks it is perfectly fine. Or, at least, it will be when he is adopted. For now, he would savor the feeling of that hug to tie him over for the family waiting for him. Izuku is optimistic. He will be adopted with time. He’s spent years perfecting himself, his lies, his smiles, his subdued emotions. He’s perfect! Prime for the picking from the next orphanage! And who knows? He doesn’t really remember the name or near anything about the city he lived in with the woman who abandoned him before she, well, abandoned him but he could be getting closer to it with this rotation and maybe she has been looking for him this entire time but he had been in a different orphanage and she will find him there when he gets there and want him back once she sees just how perfect Izuku is now! Since she hasn’t seen him in forever she might even believe the lie that he has a quirk and they could get legal records changed. 

He looks out of the window of the car as it goes further and further into a rather dreary looking forest.  _ Maybe if the trees were smiling then more people would come walk in their grove and enjoy the scenery.  _ He sighs and shakes his head in disappointment.  _ Not even nature understands the basics. _ The car pulls to a stop in front of an old, scary-looking two story house. “We are here,” the driver says. Izuku gets out of the car. The door at the end of the small, broken path opens revealing an elderly man and elderly woman.

“Welcome to The End of the Line Orphan Home, Izuku,” the driver says. “Meet Granny and Grandpa.” Izuku looks up with his too wide viridian eyes and too wide smile.  _ This time! I’ll be adopted this time! _

Izuku is optimistic.

____________________________

**Entry #12 - Kazumi**

_ Okay, Reiko, listen up. This is Kazumi here. Read the previous entries. I made that mistake beforehand and only read my guardian child’s before a few months in and I decided I’d try to find more information in the rest of this diary. Guardian child as in the child before you that dies in a week of you living here. It’s a trend as the namer of this diary has dubbed it. Meet Scrappy, the diary that will save a life some day. _

_ I have one more feeding left. I’d say that is about two to three days so let me tell you what I’ve found. _

_ Kubo left a lot to work with and I am leaving you with more. I’ve ruled out the boat. I don’t know how to operate one in general anyways. I’ve also ruled out the helicopter. Yes, there is one. In the kitchen on the second floor there is a tall cabinet just before the hallway. In it you will find a helicopter manual. I suppose it is somewhere on the roof but can’t be one hundred percent sure. Either way, I wouldn’t test my luck with it having just read a manual. So that leaves the front door. _

_ I’ve done a survey of the house. The first floor opens up to a clearing right as you leave the stairs. There is a small hall in between the living room and that clearing and in it is the front door on the left and across from that a small storage closet with a safe. Beyond that hall is the living room with stairs at the end of it that go up to the second floor to Granny’s and Grandpa’s room but it is latched on the other side. You would have to get in there somehow to unlatch it to use that door. Aside from that in the clearing immediately exiting the basement if you go to the right you will find the stairs to the second floor and then there is a long stretch house behind that on the first floor. At the end is the bathroom. To the left is the living room. To the right at the end is this weird shelter. _

_ Listen closely, Reiko, there is something living there. In the shelter there is a cylinder shaped room that you can enter and go under to use the wrench in the microwave in the kitchen to unscrew the lever that holds back a small river of water splitting that shelter room. Doing that got me caught, of course, but it allows you to cross over but you don’t want to. There is a strange animal cage in it and in that is this  _ thing _. I can’t describe it well. It is like a spider and a human in one. With metal legs and a small body and a human girl’s head without hair and seemingly glass eyes. It makes this awful noise. Just don’t try it. _

_ Is what I’d like to say. _

_ It has a small house or like cabin in there that it sleeps and I saw a golden key through the window in it on a shelf before Grandpa found me. That could be seriously important. _

_ Before I move on to the second floor let me tell you of some things I found on the first floor. In the shelter where you unscrew the stuck lever for the creature’s room there is a piece of a torn picture of Granny and Grandpa. I don’t know why or if they had a falling out but it’s there so yeah. There is also one on the table in the living room. By the way, on the couch next to it Grandpa likes to take naps. He can’t hear well so you can usually sneak past but don’t hit anything and pray Granny isn’t around. You seriously don’t want to encounter them together. The key to the boat is in the bathroom mirror cabinet. In the small drawer in the left corner as you leave the basement is a roll of duct tape. There is also the key to the helicopter in the tall cabinet in the living room in case you want to try to go that way. _

_ Now onto the second floor. As Kubo described, there is the kitchen, the guest room in the hall, the vent, the hidden electric box, and then the dining room. In the left corner of the dining room is a small room I will get to later but will refer to it as the Security Room as of now. You will turn the left from the dining room and Security Room to a small expanse of area where at the end you will find Granny’s and Grandpa’s bedroom but just before that you will find a balcony to the right. To not be mistaken, the start painted walls around it are meant to deceive you. You can’t get out that way. _

_ Listen up. On the balcony there is a box. Use the crow bar in the guest room vents to open it and you will find a pair of cutting pliers. These can be used to cut the electricity! Remember they are there! _

_ Some other things you will need to know are on the second floor is that the third piece to Granny’s and Grandpa’s break up story picture or whatever is on the dining room table. Across from the balcony against the wall is a tall single cabinet with a glass tube or something. The wrench is in the microwave. Crow bar in the vents and then here is another serious clue coming up! In the small drawer in the dining room in the far right is the key to the padlock that is watching the front door closed! Remember that!  _

_ Another giant clue that almost cost me my life before I could even write this is that in the second drawer of the three drawer dresser next to Granny’s bed is a stun gun and it’s ammo. You need this to shoot Grandpa and get the key around his neck because that key leads to the Security Room which leads to the attic. I don’t know what is up there or what is in that little drawer in the Security Room. Granny found Grandpa, got angry, and knocked me out. I’ve been down here ever since. _

_ I can’t use my legs anymore, as you know, Reiko. _

_ In that Security Room is a panel of TV’s you can watch where people are in specific places of the house. _

_ Well, I guess that is it. I would say I’ve made the most progress so far but I only did so riding on the coattails of those who came before me and paved the way so that I may find out even this much in my six months here. Reiko, I leave the rest up to you and when you become a Guardian Child to your next weekly charge, I know you two can work together to get out of here. _

_ This is Kazumi, signing off, Scrappy. _


	7. The End of the Line Orphan Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This new orphanage is not an orphanage at all and Izuku does not like it. At least he has Reiko, right?
> 
> \--- Warning: This has a bit of gore at the end. ---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone today?

Izuku is getting a really weird vibe from this new place. He watches the car drive away into the forest, disappearing from his sight. He has this odd feeling that maybe he should have chased it down. Maybe he shouldn’t have gotten out. Maybe he should have stayed in it and left with it. Nothing too bad but it was prodding in the back of his mind that maybe he shouldn’t be as optimistic about this as he is. But Izuku is. He has to be. This is his chance! It’s the “End of the Line” because every child here gets adopted, right? This is, like, some super awesome orphanage that makes every visiting family want to adopt the children here, regardless of their quirkless status or not. Izuku is optimistic.

A hand rests on his shoulder. Granny’s. The old man and woman are called Granny and Grandpa. They are scary with pale eyes and old wrinkly skin and Granny wears this ghastly white nightgown and Grandpa wears old pajamas. They are a bit creepy but when given names like Granny and Grandpa to call them how could Izuku think they are bad? He turns around and looks up at her and oh would you looky there! Granny has a blood-covered bat!  _ Wait. Wha- _

* **BAM** *

…

…

…

Izuku groans. His head pounds viciously. He peels open his viridian eyes and meets a concrete ceiling. His vision swims. 

“Hello, hello!”

Izuku jolts up at the new voice only to clutch his head as it screams at him for the sudden movement. “Wo-o-o-oah there!” Two hands find his shoulders and guide him back down on the very uncomfortable cot he was laying on. “I did the same thing when Kazumi startled me.”  _ Who is speaking? _ Izuku gathers his spiraling brain finally and turns his head. A girl sits on her knees in front of the cot that is held onto the wall by chains. She has long, straight brown hair and big brown eyes. She has to be a bit older than Izuku by a few years so maybe fourteen or fifteen? She is… suspiciously thin.

“Hello, hello!” she greets again. “I’m Reiko!”

Izuku blinks long and hard at her.  _ Oh. Smile, Izuku. _ He lets a small grin settle on his lips. Izuku pushes himself up. “I- I’m Izuku!” he greets back. Now sitting up, Izuku can get a good look at the room he is in. The very, very small room he is in. The cot that is barely long enough for his short stature is almost too short for the width of it and the length of it might be about two of the cots together? It’s tiny! The walls and ceiling and floor are all concrete and there is something foul smelling coming from that bucket in the far corner with toilet paper by it.

Reiko plants her hands on the edge of the cot and pushes up. “Hup!” Izuku only then notices the way her left leg is twisted in an awkward angle. She sits behind him where he had previously laid and Izuku turns to her. “Granny?” she questions. Izuku rubs his head, feeling a bit of crusted blood. “I tried to clean it up the best as possible but you’ll probably have one of these too.” Reiko pointed to the scar at the top of her head to the right. “Kazumi had one too. I guess all of us do.” “Who is Kazumi?” Izuku asks. “She was my Guardian Child. You’ll understand soon enough. For now, let me explain our little arrangement here!”

Izuku looks at Reiko’s smile. It reminds him of his own fake smile.  _ She’s got the right idea! _ Well, this is our room, for starters. No other children so we get it all to ourselves. Pretty sweet huh?”  _ A boy and girl together? Is that approved by the authorities? Not that we’d do anything. What family would adopt children with a child of their own? _ “Also our stuff has been taken as well,” Reiko continues. Izuku pales.  _ All Might too?! _ He looks around wildly. Yup, his suitcase was missing. “Luckily you came here dressed comfortably. Look at this,” Reiko pulled at the ends of her worn out purple blouse. “I came here trying to look presentable and now I’ve been stuck in this and these tight jeans for six whole months!”

“Six months?!” he yelped. “Shhhhhh!” Reiko slammed her hands over his mouth. The smile on her face dropped instantly to fear. They sat in silence, Reiko obviously listening for something.  _ Now that I think about it, she’s been speaking pretty hush hush. _ Reiko dropped her hands and wiped her head. “Whew! I thought Granny would hear you. Her hearing is insanely good for an old lady, or for anyone at that. We got to be quiet, okay?” Izuku nodded numbly. “Alright, so back to the tour. Over there is the bathroom,” Reiko pointed to the bucket. “It’s changed about once a week so considering your arrival Grandpa will probably change in what I assume is a few hours. Don’t really have a way to tell the time here, ya know?”

“That’s not very sanitary,” Izuku cringed. 

Reiko shrugged. “You’ll get used to it. Granny or Grandpa will check on us every day though but you will only hear them outside the door for a bit so stay away to hear them down here to count the days, alright? Just some tricks of the trade you will learn. You can sleep after that. Oh, we are also fed every couple of days. I hope you like stale bread, disturbing tasting water, and dry rice. There are a few more things here and there but that is all for now! So, Izuku, welcome to the End of the Line Orphan Home!”

Izuku blanched.  _ She’s kidding, right? This can’t be real?! No, no, no. Calm down. It doesn’t matter. You’ll be adopted soon enough anyways, Izuku.  _ He grinned back. “Thanks for having me.”  _ I won’t tell her I am quirkless. _

Just as Reiko predicted, their ‘bathroom’ bucket was emptied later that day. Izuku was told to lay down on the cot and act asleep while Reiko brushed through his hair with her fingers as his head rested on her lap. It was an odd feeling but not unwelcomed. Izuku truthfully would have cried if he had been able to. It felt so loving, so caring. He doesn’t remember a time he felt loved. Food was also left for them. Reiko split the loaf between them and held it up. “To our first meal together!” she cheered. Izuku raised his too with a grin.

Izuku likes Reiko. She’s fun and smiles and laughs and  _ looks at him _ and she’s nice. He has learned a few things about her. Reiko is fifteen years old. A shame. Most teenagers don’t get adopted. Families like the younger kids. Izuku better get adopted soon because he only had a few more months until he was twelve and then a year after that until thirteen.

He also learned why she has been in the orphanage system for so long. Reiko is quirkless too! Now, Izuku would feel a bit disheartened about the fact that she hasn’t been adopted yet and is now fifteen because of her quirklessness as though it was a glimpse of the future for him but Izuku is optimistic. He’s been perfecting a lot of lies so that no one will ever have to know about his quirklessness if they just never look at his files!

He hears the clanging of metal doors every once in a while. Reiko says it is the iron maiden in a room across the basement. They are in a basement, by the way. He asks why there is one here. He read about them. They were used to brutally kill criminals back in the olden days. Like, the so olden days that it is the olden days of the prequirk era.

Reiko won’t tell him about the iron maiden though. She teaches him hand games like Chopsticks and how far they can roll a piece of chipped concrete from their cot to the old wooden door. Izuku feels like he would go crazy in here though if he didn’t have someone to talk to. He’s lucky to have Reiko. She’s acted like a big sister to him of some sorts in this little room of theirs.

They each have their own ways to fall asleep. Izuku still rocks on the cot that they share numbly, practicing his smile. It’s harder without his All Might figurine as a reference but he’s been doing this long enough to know how it is supposed to look. Reiko writes in this old journal that he doesn’t know where she got it or how she kept it. She won’t let him see it though which he supposes its fine. He hears girls are protective of their diary. Not that he would know. It isn’t like many people talk to him enough for him to get to know them. 

Using the bathroom is a bit awkward but Reiko turns her back when he does and he turns his back when she does. It isn’t exactly how Izuku prefers to live. It’s cold and they have no pillow or blanket and the cot is uncomfortable and it is boring a lot of the time and he is losing track of time and he hasn’t seen a family yet though so maybe it hasn’t been as long as he thinks and using the bathroom is strange and Granny and Grandpa are scary and Izuku is getting hungry but Izuku has Reiko and Reiko smiles at him. Reiko  _ looks _ at him. Izuku will be fine because Reiko is here.

After Grandpa feeds them for the third time since Izuku’s arrival, Reiko speaks up.

“Izuku,” Reiko addresses him as they sit back to back on the cot as she writes in that journal again, “if I leave you, read this diary, okay? Every single page of it from the beginning to the end, alright?” The greenette furrows his eyebrows. “Is a family coming to adopt you?” Izuku feels her shake her head. “No. At this point it is already too late for me.” Izuku snickers. “You say that like you are going to die!” … “Reiko?” She chuckles but it sounds wet as though she is trying not to cry. “Nothing. You’re right. That was odd wording. Just… this is under our mattress. Read it.”

Izuku doesn’t like those words but still he promises to do so if she should ever ‘leave’ him. He hopes she doesn’t. Reiko  _ looks _ at him. Reiko  _ wants  _ him. Izuku would be devastated if she were to leave him.

…

…

…

“-ku. Iz- u. Izuku!” Viridian eyes flutter open to Reiko shaking him. “Wake up! Wake up!” she whispers frantically. “Wha…?” Izuku sits up, rubbing his bleary eyes. Reiko is staring up at the circles on the wall. There are three sets of seven of them. All of the sets have their circles drawn on the wall with the pen Reiko uses to write are scratched out. The set he has seen her scratch out has two left but Reiko scratches them both out hurriedly. “I miscalculated,” she doesn’t explain. “I’m sorry!” Reiko hides the pen back under the mattress.

“Reiko? What’s going on?” He is starting to get worried. Her franticness is making his blood pressure rise. She stares at him with despair in her brown eyes. In the silence between them, Izuku hears the tap of Grandpa’s cane on the floor of the basement.  _ What?! But he shouldn’t be here! He fed us not too long ago and already checked up! _

“Izuku…” Reiko whimpers. * **BANG** * The door to their small room is swung open wide. Granny and Grandpa stand in the doorway… together? “No…” Reiko pushes herself to the wall. “N-O!” her voice breaks with a screech so loud it hurts Izuku’s ears.

“ _ I see you. _ ” Grandpa’s voice sends shivers down Izuku’s spine. He clutches to his terrified roommate. Granny hobbles in and grabs Reiko’s arm. The teenager screams. “Let go of her!” Izuku reaches forward. Grandpa grabs his arm and drags Izuku out after them. Izuku had never been outside that room before. The basement had a staircase up, a small room to the left, and then another door leading somewhere else in the basement to the left of that. They are brought to the small room in the basement. Reiko screams and struggles as she is dragged, unable to stand properly with her messed up leg. Izuku, unaware of what is happening but feeling the panic, struggles as well.  _ What’s happening?! What’s going on?! _

The door opens. At the end of the room is the Iron Maiden. The metal is rusted and the large spikes on it are caked with dried blood. Grandpa stops with him in the doorway while Granny drags Reiko. Suddenly, like ice dropped down his back, Izuku understands what is going on.

\-----

_ ‘Izuku, if I leave you, read this diary, okay?’ _

\-----

_ ‘At this point it is already too late for me.’ _

_ ’You say that like you are going to die!’ _

_ … _

_ ‘Reiko?’ _

\-----

“Please!” Reiko cries. Tears stream from her eyes. Izuku struggles in Grandpa’s hold. Grandpa takes his cane, the end of it also caked with blood, and holds it up to Izuku’s neck forcing the greenette to stand pressed up against him, almost getting choked by it. Granny straps Reiko into the iron maiden. “PLEASE!” Granny with her blood caked bat, walks back to where Izuku and Grandpa stand. There is a lever on the wall. Izuku stares in despair into Reiko’s eyes.

The way she tried to smile so bravely at him through the tears… Izuku’s perspective on smiling changed that day. With that smile firmly imprinted on Izuku’s memory, Granny pulled the lever. The doors to the iron maiden slammed shut with a * **!BANG!** *

* **Squish** *

Reiko  _ screamed _ . Blood, in all it’s crimson glory, burst from the cracks as the spike penetrated every inch of her body. It seeped down from it to form a rapidly growing pond of blood under and around it. The stench of blood and iron wafted into the air. Izuku covered his mouth. Grandpa removed the cane over his neck and Izuku, with weak legs, collapsed to the ground. He promptly threw up as he heard Reiko’s screams turn bubbly and wet as blood filled her lungs and clogged her airways.

For the first time in many years, Izuku cried.  _ Reiko…! _

Izuku was taken back to their room. He laid there in stunned shock for who knows how long. It had to be a while. Grandpa even fed him once in his dazed state. He didn’t want to close his eyes. Every time he did the scene from the Iron Maiden Room flashed in his mind’s eye. He’s thrown up twice since then. Izuku couldn’t believe it. After what had to be a few days, Izuku pulled himself together. He remembered Reiko’s words. He pulled up the mattress and slid out the worn out journal. It was leather with a compass engraved onto it. Izuku dryly chuckled.  _ What? Is it supposed to guide me after whatever the hell that was?  _ Leaning against the wall, Izuku opened it up to the first page and began to read.

Izuku read.

…

And he read.

…

And he read.

And for the first time in many, many years… Izuku was fully pessimistic. 

____________________________

**Entry #13 - Reiko**

_ I’m sorry, Kazumi. I couldn’t get out. But don’t worry. I’ve written everything in Scappy for my charge. _

_ Izuku, read this, memorize this diary, drill it into your brain for the next six months so that when you become the Guardian Child you and your charge will be able to get out. I completed the puzzle. I found the pieces. Now it is up to you.  _

_ Here we go. _

_ Use the stun gun to shoot Grandpa, grab the Security Room key from his neck and make a dead run for the Security Room. You can’t lock it behind you but that is fine. In the small drawer to your left will be the door handle to the front door, got it? Get it and climb up the ladder to the attic. It’s loud and rickety and Granny will come for you but she can’t get up there so you better scramble your little tush up there before she knocks your little tush back down to the basement. She will forget you are up there in about an hour and instead tend to Grandpa. _

_ So you are in the attic. To the left is a small room where in it is a small wheel in a tall cabinet. Now, this took me a lot of work to find out but there is a small peg just outside of our room in the basement. Put that wheel on it and with all the strength you have in those twig arms malnourished from your six months here you turn that baby until you can’t no more! That will be loud and squeaky and immediately alert Granny and Grandpa but it opens the cage in front of the front door. Boo yah! There you go. You got the padlock key, the crow bar, the door handle, the cutting pliers, and the wheel. _

_ I’d like to say that is all you need but as you see, I was put out of commission trying to get everything. Izuku, your heart is big and kind but your life is on the line. There is a room in the attic. Go right instead of left and you will find it. There is a barred off portion of it but if you find the shotgun and shoot the button at the other end of it it will open a small door into it. Where is the shotgun? In the bottom drawer of the three drawer dresser just outside of the bars is a key to a gun safe. On the first floor there is a bookshelf across from the shelter room that has a single orange book next to a few red ones. Pull it back and the bookshelf will move over. A small cubby hole on the ground only a child like yourself could get through is there and in it the gun safe. There is ammo littered around the house. Grandpa must have been a hunter at one point in time. _

_ You don’t want to. I know you don’t want to. But if time comes to it and the stun gun is not enough to get you through Granny and Grandpa, use that shot gun. You have to get out, Izuku. You and your kid. Get out and find the authorities. Find trustworthy people and tell them about the End of the Line Orphan Home. Put an end to this once and for all. Love, your big sister, Reiko. _

_ This is Reiko, signing off, Scrappy. _

_ Godspeed, Izuku. _


	8. Scrappy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All entries in the Scrappy Journal in row.

**Entry #1 - Yua**

_ I’m scared. This isn’t normal. This isn’t like the other orphanages. Granny and Grandpa locked me in the basement in this room that is small enough to be a closet. I was told to call them that. They are scary. It’s cold. The bed is just a board with a thin mattress hung on the wall by chains. There isn’t even a bathroom, only a bucket and some toilet paper. I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve been here but I feel like maybe it’s a week? I’ve been fed three times stale bread and water. I know I am here because no one wanted to adopt me but at least all of the other orphanages were better than this one. I hope I get moved soon… _

_______________________________

**Entry #2 - Yua**

_ I know it’s called the “End of the Line Orphan Home” but I am seriously starting to think it is! I tried to get out to the first floor. I got far enough to see the front door. It’s boarded up? And has electric lines on it? And a padlock? And a cage? There was no handle either? Looking around all of the windows were barred too! It’s like I am in some jail or something. _

_ Granny found me. She had a bat. I didn’t stand a chance. I was hungry and weak. I woke up in the basement again with a broken leg. It hurts. _

_ Hey. That cage on the front door… I get this is the last orphanage for me, the last chance to get adopted but this isn’t really an orphanage, is it? No one will come, will they? I’m not going to get out of here, am I? _

_______________________________

**Entry #3 - Yua**

_ There is an iron maiden and a boat. I pretended to be asleep when Grandpa came to change my bucket and feed me. I “woke up” when he left. I figured maybe I have at least a few hours to explore the basement so I did. I had to be quiet. Granny’s hearing is scary good. Grandpa’s is really bad but he hits harder than Granny I found out. I couldn’t move for a week after my last excursion. Bad try. He was coming down the same time I was going up. Broke a rib I think.  _

_ Anyway, I explored the basement today. I’ve probably been here about a month or something. I don’t know. Truly, my grip on time is fading. I can count to sixty second and know that’s a minute, sixty minutes is an hour. I counted a whole day once out of boredom. Anyway x2, I checked the basement. There is another small room down here with the iron maiden in it. If I recall correctly, the iron maiden was a torture device, right? Criminals in the olden days were put in it and the spikes on the doors would impale them when it closed. They’d bleed out and die. I wonder why it is here? _

_ There is a second level to the basement. Two flights of stairs lead to a room with a boat in icky looking water. There are bars keeping it from leaving though in a tunnel or something. I tried to squeeze through the bars but when my foot hit the water it burned! I think it’s poisoned or something. Out of curiosity, I surveyed the boat. I couldn’t turn it on though. There was no steering wheel, no key, and it was out of fuel so bummer there. I could have just rammed my way out through those bars! Or died trying. _

_ At this point I think I’d rather die than continue this dreadful life here. _

_______________________________

**Entry #4 - Yua**

_ I’m trying something new. I’m trying to get on Granny’s and Grandpa’s good side. I try to talk to them when they come down. I dance around them and smile widely and giggle. None of my smiles are real anymore. It’s all acting. But it’s working. _

_ I was taken out of the basement once. They let me walk around the first floor. Granny plays piano which I didn’t know. She’s not too good at it though. Her eyes aren’t as good as they once were and her bones are old. It’s harder for her to play. I tried to go on the second floor and they flipped like a switch though. Grandpa has a cane, by the way, and it hurts. I woke up in the basement again with a throbbing headache.  _

_ Note to self, don’t try to go to the second floor. _

_______________________________

**Entry #5 - Yua**

_ I got a picture with Granny and Grandpa today. They are getting really friendly with me the more I try to get on their good side. When they brought me out of the basement again I saw my picture with them on the wall. There was also one of just me very big. I am starting to get worried. Time is ticking and they seem to be getting restless around me. I hope it is for a good reason though. I am trying to be optimistic in my situation. _

_ Something tells me I shouldn’t get too optimistic. _

_______________________________

**Entry #6 - Yua**

_ Another kid joined me! Another kid came! Her name is Madaline. What a pretty name. I think she is foreign. Her Japanese isn’t the best either. But it is good to have company. We have to share the room and bed and bathroom bucket and I hated having to explain how things go here to her but she wasn’t very down about it. After all, we are the rejected orphans. We’ve been at rock bottom from the start. _

_ Madaline is a year older than me, sixteen. She’s pretty. Her quirk allows her to pop her eyes out of her head. She is blind when she does that and it hurts when her eyes are touched so she doesn’t do that much.  _

_ On a side note, Granny and Grandpa have been down in the basement a lot lately but not to bring me up for some reason. I hear what I think is the iron maiden a lot. It’s scary when I hear it closing and opening. I think they are working on it but I don’t know what for. I don’t think I should be worried though. After all, Granny and Grandpa are smitten with me. Soon enough I should be moved to the real house at this rate. _

_ Yet, the iron maiden makes me worried. _

_______________________________

**Entry #7 - Madaline**

_ Yua’s dead. This is Madaline. I saw Yua writing in this diary a lot. I didn’t know we were allowed to keep a journal. She hid it so probably not. I had only been here a week when ‘Granny’ and ‘Grandpa’ killed her. I had to watch. She screamed all the way being dragged to the iron maiden. I tried to fight them and save her. They broke her legs with the bat. _

_ I don’t think I will ever forget the sound of her screams when she was impaled in that box or the squish and sound of flowing blood or the way the crimson seeped out of it and formed a puddle on the floor. I don’t know why she was killed. Is that what they mean by “The End of the Line”? Will I be killed too? _

_ Not if I can help it. _

**_______________________________**

**Entry #8 - Madaline man**

_ There is a box in the basement across from our room. I couldn’t get it open so I moved on to other measures. I snuck upstairs to the first floor and made it to the bathroom. I searched and searched for anything to help aid in my escape. In the end, I found a key in the bathroom mirror cabinet. I pocketed it just in time to turn around and see Granny. My memory is hazy after that. _

_ She broke my arm. Sorry if this is sloppy. I am not ambidextrous. The key I found out goes to the boat. About a week later Grandpa realized it was missing. I blacked out for a long time after he beat me for taking it. _

_ But I found it again. I don’t know if it is because they are old and senile but it was back in the first floor bathroom. I won’t take it this time. I need to find more parts to get out. I will escape. _

_______________________________

**Entry #9 - Madaline**

_ So there is another kid here. Akito, he said his name was. Only twelve. I could be seventeen by now but I’m not sure at this point. How do I explain to him the torturous life we will live here. I recruited him. Akito is going to help me get pieces of the boat. He’s smaller than me. He can move quicker and dodge more.  _

_ We can do this. _

_______________________________

**Entry #10 - Akito**

_ Um hello? I’ve never written a diary before. I’m Akito though I guess you already know that, huh, diary? Diary sounds weird just calling you that. I could give you a name! Like, um, you know, Scrappy? Scrappy! Cause scrap paper! Yeah! _

_ Ah, well, I guess you are probably wondering what happened to Madaline, huh, Scrappy? She’s, um, died. I’m sorry… I couldn’t save her. She was so nice to me too! She showed me the bathroom on the first floor once! I’ve only been here a week but she was so nice. She was like a big sister. _

_ Then they killed her. I don’t like Granny and Grandpa. I don’t like how they killed her. Madaline told me about the iron maiden, that’s what she called it. They used that. It was so scary! She screamed! She was in so much pain! I can still hear it. Make it stop! _

_ I don’t like it here. _

_ I read Yua’s writings. She seemed nice too. She was killed too. What is that word? A trend? If so am I next? No, no, no! Madaline said she was working to get out! There is a key in the first floor bathroom to the boat below. I won’t let big sis Madaline down! I’ll get out! _

_ This is Akito, signing out, Scrappy. _

_______________________________

**Entry #11 - Kubo**

_ Akito is dead. This is Kubo. Akito had amnesia from getting hit too hard in the head by ‘Grandpa.’ He forgot to search after that and didn’t leave much but he was so insistent on me reading this journal. I see why now. ‘Grandpa’ knocked him so hard when he had a brain injury already and he would forget every few days. I hate that that is the only name I have to call him. As far as I know, ‘Granny’ and ‘Grandpa’ aren’t loving grandparental figures at all. I won’t tell you what happened to Akito because if you are reading this you probably already know. My days are limited. Kazumi has already come. Hi, Kazumi, if you are reading this after I’m gone. _

_ I’ve spent my six months here conspiracizing. That is right, six months. Let me tell you what I have found out. I first heard of this ‘orphanage’ in my last orphanage. It is where the unwanted of the unwanted children come. Having been moved to so many orphanages that it is obvious we are unwanted and deemed a menace to society, they send us here. Now, as it is called an orphanage we can still be adopted here. This place is common knowledge in the adoption field. The general public just doesn’t know what happens if we don’t get adopted within the six months we are allotted here which is death and they don’t particularly care for us either to adopt us because we are ‘so bad’ as to make it here: the end of the line. _

_ I heard it in the car as I was being driven here about the six months. The two taking me were groaning about having to be the one to take me and about how I would only be alive six months longer. I knew well beforehand about the impending death. _

_ I know I am not fed every day so I count by the times ‘Grandpa’ comes to feed me. About three feedings in, I found this journal. I know I can’t do this alone. I’ve gone around trying to find things, anything to open the front door. I made it to the second floor of the main house. Let me lay it out for you as far as I know. The stairs to it lead into a kitchen. There is a hallway to the left of that. On the left wall of the hallway is a picture. I accidentally hit it off on the way back which is what got me caught but behind that was an electrical panel. I think that if you had the correct tool you could cut it and disable the electricity in the house and that means the front door electric wires. Now, you would have to do this either last or just before removing the boards on the front door and the cage over it. Now, how do you do that? I don’t know about the cage but to the right in the hall is a guest room. At the end of that hall is a kitchen and if you immediately turn to the right you will find a couple of boxes on the floor hiding a hole into the vents that lead into that guest room. I crawled inside when I heard ‘Granny’ coming. I found a crow bar. _

_ That crow bar can be used to pry off the boards on the front door. I got caught with it by knocking off the picture in the hall. I went back after healing up and got it though. A week is all I had with it. That and the boat key from previous writings in this diary, Scrappy as Akito called it. I’ve opened the box in the basement right across from our room. It has a spark plug to a boat. I only know that because in my boredom at other orphanages I studied a lot of mechanical things hoping to make a living one day. Well, here I am. Guess that isn’t happening. Either way, through some experimenting I decided to see how long it would take from ‘Granny’ and ‘Grandpa’ to start noticing their hidden items are missing. It takes about a week and either by old age or luck they always return to the same place. _

_ Kazumi, or whoever tries the next attempt, you have the week with your next kid to convince them to get out and help you before your time is up and that iron maiden closes the door on your life.  _

_ Kazumi, I know you think I am crazy. As far as you’ve seen me I’ve been in this corner writing for the past few days like a mad man. I haven’t said a word to you. I don’t want you to get attached when I know I am about to die. They show the new kids the deaths of the older kids to dwindle their will and hope to escape. Don’t let it happen to you when you witness my death, Kazumi. You must fight. Even if you cannot get out you must. For the sake of those to come after you, please use this journal and write what you find. For the record, you were a great roommate. _

_ This is Kubo, signing off, Scrappy. _

_______________________________

**Entry #12 - Kazumi**

_ Okay, Reiko, listen up. This is Kazumi here. Read the previous entries. I made that mistake beforehand and only read my guardian child’s before a few months in and I decided I’d try to find more information in the rest of this diary. Guardian child as in the child before you that dies in a week of you living here. It’s a trend as the namer of this diary has dubbed it. Meet Scrappy, the diary that will save a life some day. _

_ I have one more feeding left. I’d say that is about two to three days so let me tell you what I’ve found. _

_ Kubo left a lot to work with and I am leaving you with more. I’ve ruled out the boat. I don’t know how to operate one in general anyways. I’ve also ruled out the helicopter. Yes, there is one. In the kitchen on the second floor there is a tall cabinet just before the hallway. In it you will find a helicopter manual. I suppose it is somewhere on the roof but can’t be one hundred percent sure. Either way, I wouldn’t test my luck with it having just read a manual. So that leaves the front door. _

_ I’ve done a survey of the house. The first floor opens up to a clearing right as you leave the stairs. There is a small hall in between the living room and that clearing and in it is the front door on the left and across from that a small storage closet with a safe. Beyond that hall is the living room with stairs at the end of it that go up to the second floor to Granny’s and Grandpa’s room but it is latched on the other side. You would have to get in there somehow to unlatch it to use that door. Aside from that in the clearing immediately exiting the basement if you go to the right you will find the stairs to the second floor and then there is a long stretch house behind that on the first floor. At the end is the bathroom. To the left is the living room. To the right at the end is this weird shelter. _

_ Listen closely, Reiko, there is something living there. In the shelter there is a cylinder shaped room that you can enter and go under to use the wrench in the microwave in the kitchen to unscrew the lever that holds back a small river of water splitting that shelter room. Doing that got me caught, of course, but it allows you to cross over but you don’t want to. There is a strange animal cage in it and in that is this  _ thing _. I can’t describe it well. It is like a spider and a human in one. With metal legs and a small body and a human girl’s head without hair and seemingly glass eyes. It makes this awful noise. Just don’t try it. _

_ Is what I’d like to say. _

_ It has a small house or like cabin in there that it sleeps and I saw a golden key through the window in it on a shelf before Grandpa found me. That could be seriously important. _

_ Before I move on to the second floor let me tell you of some things I found on the first floor. In the shelter where you unscrew the stuck lever for the creature’s room there is a piece of a torn picture of Granny and Grandpa. I don’t know why or if they had a falling out but it’s there so yeah. There is also one on the table in the living room. By the way, on the couch next to it Grandpa likes to take naps. He can’t hear well so you can usually sneak past but don’t hit anything and pray Granny isn’t around. You seriously don’t want to encounter them together. The key to the boat is in the bathroom mirror cabinet. In the small drawer in the left corner as you leave the basement is a roll of duct tape. There is also the key to the helicopter in the tall cabinet in the living room in case you want to try to go that way. _

_ Now onto the second floor. As Kubo described, there is the kitchen, the guest room in the hall, the vent, the hidden electric box, and then the dining room. In the left corner of the dining room is a small room I will get to later but will refer to it as the Security Room as of now. You will turn the left from the dining room and Security Room to a small expanse of area where at the end you will find Granny’s and Grandpa’s bedroom but just before that you will find a balcony to the right. To not be mistaken, the start painted walls around it are meant to deceive you. You can’t get out that way. _

_ Listen up. On the balcony there is a box. Use the crow bar in the guest room vents to open it and you will find a pair of cutting pliers. These can be used to cut the electricity! Remember they are there! _

_ Some other things you will need to know are on the second floor is that the third piece to Granny’s and Grandpa’s break up story picture or whatever is on the dining room table. Across from the balcony against the wall is a tall single cabinet with a glass tube or something. The wrench is in the microwave. Crow bar in the vents and then here is another serious clue coming up! In the small drawer in the dining room in the far right is the key to the padlock that is watching the front door closed! Remember that!  _

_ Another giant clue that almost cost me my life before I could even write this is that in the second drawer of the three drawer dresser next to Granny’s bed is a stun gun and it’s ammo. You need this to shoot Grandpa and get the key around his neck because that key leads to the Security Room which leads to the attic. I don’t know what is up there or what is in that little drawer in the Security Room. Granny found Grandpa, got angry, and knocked me out. I’ve been down here ever since. _

_ I can’t use my legs anymore, as you know, Reiko. _

_ In that Security Room is a panel of TV’s you can watch where people are in specific places of the house. _

_ Well, I guess that is it. I would say I’ve made the most progress so far but I only did so riding on the coattails of those who came before me and paved the way so that I may find out even this much in my six months here. Reiko, I leave the rest up to you and when you become a Guardian Child to your next weekly charge, I know you two can work together to get out of here. _

_ This is Kazumi, signing off, Scrappy. _

_______________________________

**Entry #13 - Reiko**

_ I’m sorry, Kazumi. I couldn’t get out. But don’t worry. I’ve written everything in Scappy for my charge. _

_ Izuku, read this, memorize this diary, drill it into your brain for the next six months so that when you become the Guardian Child you and your charge will be able to get out. I completed the puzzle. I found the pieces. Now it is up to you.  _

_ Here we go. _

_ Use the stun gun to shoot Grandpa, grab the Security Room key from his neck and make a dead run for the Security Room. You can’t lock it behind you but that is fine. In the small drawer to your left will be the door handle to the front door, got it? Get it and climb up the ladder to the attic. It’s loud and rickety and Granny will come for you but she can’t get up there so you better scramble your little tush up there before she knocks your little tush back down to the basement. She will forget you are up there in about an hour and instead tend to Grandpa. _

_ So you are in the attic. To the left is a small room where in it is a small wheel in a tall cabinet. Now, this took me a lot of work to find out but there is a small peg just outside of our room in the basement. Put that wheel on it and with all the strength you have in those twig arms malnourished from your six months here you turn that baby until you can’t no more! That will be loud and squeaky and immediately alert Granny and Grandpa but it opens the cage in front of the front door. Boo yah! There you go. You got the padlock key, the crow bar, the door handle, the cutting pliers, and the wheel. _

_ I’d like to say that is all you need but as you see, I was put out of commission trying to get everything. Izuku, your heart is big and kind but your life is on the line. There is a room in the attic. Go right instead of left and you will find it. There is a barred off portion of it but if you find the shotgun and shoot the button at the other end of it it will open a small door into it. Where is the shotgun? In the bottom drawer of the three drawer dresser just outside of the bars is a key to a gun safe. On the first floor there is a bookshelf across from the shelter room that has a single orange book next to a few red ones. Pull it back and the bookshelf will move over. A small cubby hole on the ground only a child like yourself could get through is there and in it the gun safe. There is ammo littered around the house. Grandpa must have been a hunter at one point in time. _

_ You don’t want to. I know you don’t want to. But if time comes to it and the stun gun is not enough to get you through Granny and Grandpa, use that shot gun. You have to get out, Izuku. You and your kid. Get out and find the authorities. Find trustworthy people and tell them about the End of the Line Orphan Home. Put an end to this once and for all. Love, your big sister, Reiko. _

_ This is Reiko, signing off, Scrappy. _

_ Godspeed, Izuku. _


	9. Pessimism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku is sad without Reiko.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone doing today?

Izuku is not optimistic.

He’s lost.

He’s lost because he doesn’t know how to  _ not _ be optimistic.

He’s not read this journal once. Not twice. Not three times or four times, or five times. Well over twenty times, Izuku has read this journal. There isn’t much to do when you are trapped in this basement alone. The silence penetrates him like little needles. He misses Reiko. He remembers her laugh. Her smile. The way she  _ saw  _ him. He remembers her cries. Her screams. Her blood. The way she  _ looked _ and  _ smiled  _ at him from within that death trap. And then this journal… the stories of failed escapes. One thing rings clear in his mind:

Izuku is  _ not _ getting adopted.

He sighs and puts it down, staring numbly at the ceiling. A smile rests on his lips still. It scares him too much to put it down so he just leaves it there. It feels comfortable, like a home to cling to. Even though it was a fake smile originally and at this point still very much is, it was what Izuku created in hopes to attract a family to him so he couldn’t just put it away, store it in his back pocket or anything. No, Izuku just left it on his face because maybe, just maybe, he could still attract an invisible family to him somehow by it? Not likely but what else did he have to cling to now?

Izuku hasn’t cried again from that day in the Death Room, as he has deemed it. He hadn’t cried in so long that when he did it practically knocked him out. He felt so dehydrated and in pain and though it is a stress reliever to cry, he felt like he might just die if he attempts it again. Maybe this disconnect should have been a sign to him that his mind wasn’t really ever sane but he was so used to pushing those warning signs to the back of his mind that it just became natural to him. 

Izuku spent a good month playing rock paper scissors against the wall, chopsticks against himself, and hitting the door with that little pebble. He spent the next month reading that journal straight. Anytime he heard Granny or Grandpa coming he’d hide it. He did exactly as Reiko said: he memorized that book. He did and yet… he felt so numb without his normal flow of optimism that he never acted on it until five months in. Five months of solitary confinement in his shaken mind, unable to comprehend the feeling of sadness, sent Izuku down many rabbit holes in his mind. It made him nervous. Jittery. He picked up bad habits. He bit his nails until they bled, stared at walls until his vision got so splotchy he couldn’t see, wrung his wrists with his hands until he couldn't feel them or he thought his wrist might break. Some nights Izuku bit his arm so hard that the flesh tore and others he stared at the door blankly for days at a time, meeting Grandpa’s or Grandma’s eyes each time they opened it to feed him or check up on him still actually being there or cleaning the bathroom. He got sick from the unsanitary conditions for almost a month too that almost killed him before the iron maiden did that job.

Izuku doesn’t like the feeling of being pessimistic.

The first time he decided to act on the journal was five months into his six month allotted time to live, if what the pattern in the diary, Scrappy, was correct. He didn’t do much. He just wanted to know if it was possible. He knew he’d have to wait to become a “Guardian Child'' to do this, but he wanted to know if it was possible and if the facts in the journal were true. He found the boat in the room below the basement. Just as it said, there was no key or wheel and it was blocked in. So that was true.

The first time he decided to go out of the basement, Izuku almost got caught being stupid and putting his foot too hard down on a wooden floorboard, because they have wooden floors in the house above, and Granny’s scary good hearing had her coming his way. Luckily Granny and Grandpa both have heavy feet and alerted him to her presence coming his way. Izuku fled back to his AND Reiko’s room. To test the theory on the placement of the objects described in the journal, Izuku first checked the small drawer just outside of the basement stairwell. Just as the journal said in Kazumi’s entry there was the roll of duct tape there. To test the week theory, Izuku waited three feedings with that roll of duct tape under his mattress. He slept on his stomach with the journal and pen in his black hoodie pocket.

Three feedings later, right before what should have been four, Granny came down and searched his room, Izuku having to stay in the corner by the bathroom bucket while she searched for it. When she found it, Izuku had the fear of God struck into him when he swore her eyes turned red and she turned on him. Izuku squeezed his eyes shut and braced for the hit. Izuku woke up on the floor with a throbbing pain in his right leg. He had been knocked out when his head hit the floor. Luckily Granny doesn’t hit as hard as Grandpa and she didn’t break his leg but Izuku couldn’t walk on it for two weeks.

Maybe it was that which put the nail in the coffin for him. Or the screw in the iron maiden, if you would. 

Izuku’s motivation plummeted in his bedridden two weeks. He didn’t exactly know the time he had been there but he had been keeping track of feedings making little tally marks with the pen on the wall and he hadn’t been able to feign having an analysis quirk for nothing. He was able to deduce that he had been there well over five months. His six months were coming to a close.

You know, it’s funny knowing when and how you are going to die. Waiting for a new kid to come was like looking for the landmark in the road telling you which turn to take down the end of the road of life.

Izuku was flipping through the pages of the journal again when he heard it: the iron maiden. Granny and Grandpa were messing with it. Dull viridian eyes flipped the pages to Yua’s writings about her first encounter with hearing the iron maiden being messed with. Yua was a bit hard to understand but he thinks Madaline came a bit after Granny and Grandpa started messing with the iron maiden so if Izuku has to guess, the same will be for him. He sighs and restarts the journal again. He takes the pen out and turns around to the wall.

Izuku drawn one circle. And then another. And then another until there are seven. And then he waits for the day to come when a child is brought down here, unsuspecting of their horrible fate, and he can scratch it out, just like Reiko did. Just like Kazumi did, And just like Kubo did. If there was one thing Izuku noticed was that as if to honor the previous writers in Scrappy, the next writer would copy something they did.

Akito named Scrappy and started the ‘Signing Out’ thing. Kubo started the circle thing. Kazumi coined the title ‘Guardian Child.’ Izuku supposes the ‘God speed’ will be Reiko’s. He taps his chin as he stares at those circles a day or something later. He wonders what his trademark to leave behind will be. He looks down at his bloody nails he had been biting again even though he had almost bit them nearly off at this point. Maybe he could leave a fingerprint on his page with his own blood? Yea. Why not? Should he write it now or wait until he knows the name of the child he will be the ‘Guardian’ of? Would that be too morbid?

* **_whack_ ** * * **_thud_ ** *

Izuku looked up. That was extremely muffled so it had to have come from the house above.  _ Who hit who? Why? _ There was a shuffling. Izuku blinked.  _ Wait. No. _ He hid the journal and pen. His door opened to reveal Granny and Grandpa with an unconscious kid.  _ Ah, so it is already that time, huh? _ Izuku got up and let them drag the newcomer in and all but threw them on the bed. Izuku waved goodbye to Granny and Grandpa as almost a cruel joke. He sighed when his door closed. Izuku turned back to the newcomer preparing to clean up the wound on their head that Izuku knew they had as there was a thin trail of blood now on his floor. Izuku stared down at the boy on the bed.

…

…

…

“Hitoshi…?”


	10. Determination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hitoshi's side of the story after Izuku left and his arrival at the End of the Line Orphan Home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How's everyone doing?

_ ‘Don’t forget to smile, okay?’ _

\-----

Those were the last words Izuku left him with. Hitoshi took them seriously. Of course he knew that they were from a part of Izuku’s brain that was not so well put together but Hitoshi is eleven, starved for love, and Izuku showed him attention. Things like that stick, you know?

So Hitoshi held onto those words.

Hitoshi had only been here a month when Izuku left and for about two of those they didn’t really talk but the other two they did. Izuku taught him a lot about surviving in their situation. Hitoshi has to wonder if it was because Izuku was set in the orphanage system at a younger age. Hitoshi asked once before about the greenette’s life before becoming an orphan.

\-----

_ ‘I was five,’ Izuku growled. ‘She just left me there without saying anything and drove away!’ _

_ Hitoshi backed up. He’d never seen Izuku anything less than smiley before. _

_ Like a switch went off in Izuku’s mind, the boy jolted and looked up with that same old, kind of creepy, grin of his. ‘But don’t worry! I don’t need her! She just didn’t want me. I’ll find someone who does soon enough.’ _

\-----

Hitoshi never asked again.

He was put in the orphanage at the age of seven, adopted three months later, scared that family, and put back in. Hitoshi can’t tell if the false hope they gave him was worse than being in it full time or not. Either way, Izuku taught him things in those short months. Izuku’s smiling was his way of survival so what that last line of encouragement left Hitoshi with was a need to improve and survive in his own way.

Hitoshi doesn’t know why but the caretakers wouldn’t let Izuku take his textbooks so Hitoshi took them and decided on growing his brain like Izuku did. He couldn’t pull of an analysis quirk. Hitoshi knows he isn’t that smart and everyone at school already knows his real quirk. Many of them stay away now though and he had a couple of Izuku’s friends who noticed Hitoshi wasn’t really as bad as they thought and still hung around with him after Izuku left. With his momentary lapse of peace, Hitoshi delved into studies of the mind. Izuku’s primary objective was to be the best in every subject to get families to notice him and he was pretty darn good at it but it was obvious to Hitoshi that his psychology studies weren’t really implemented. Izuku could recite the whole textbook Hitoshi bets if it would give him a chance at a family but he never really digested the information. That whole smiling obsession is proof of that. If Izuku had started implementing what he learned in the textbooks he would have known that his whole smiling thing wasn’t working and that it was pretty damaging to his mental state. Actually, Hitoshi wouldn’t have known that if he hadn't read the textbooks. He learned a lot and noticed a lot of scary signs in Izuku’s mental state from what he remembers of the green haired boy.

Hitoshi’s dream, despite the world telling him that his quirk was better suited to becoming a villain, was always to become a hero. It isn’t a too well-known fact but there is another type of hero than just Spotlight Heroes and Rescue Heroes. Two types, actually. There are the Underground Heroes that no one knows about and there are the Tactics Heroes that make the plans behind the scenes. Something like Principal Nedzu, the principal of UA High School which is the top hero school in the country and possibly the world. Hitoshi isn’t foolish enough to believe that he would be able to become a fighting, spotlight hero despite his wish to do so. His quirk just isn’t suited for it. But he has a fighting chance at a tactics hero or underground hero. In pursuit of his dreams, Hitoshi read that psychology textbook daily. He swung by the public library every day too and read all of the books on the human brain, how it works, and how to manipulate it. He read up on the nervous system and how it is connected to the brain. He read about the human psyche and how to manipulate that.

Hitoshi became a favorite at the library within the staff. He could never check out the books, afraid of what the caretakers would think if they saw him reading these types of things. He doesn’t think they would buy him doing this all to become a hero. So he read them at the library.

After those, Hitoshi moved on to his own quirk. He found books on every type of quirk he could find that were even remotely similar to his own brainwashing quirk, even one that could emit a small electrical shock that would change a person’s mind. He read scientific theories on what could happen to a person’s mind if it was controlled by someone else for too long which included no longer being able to function without commands from that person’s quirk or that brainwashing devices. The tests ran on humans and specifically quirked individuals back when quirks first started appearing were especially horrible to read. Many times did Hitoshi have to stop reading and calm down. The fear towards the quirked at that time spurred on the quirkless population which was much bigger than the quirked population at that time to take action against the quirked. At those times, quirks hadn’t evolved and changed through the time to really deflect if military forces turned against them. Now, most military forces were composed of the quirked population or quirk-boosted weaponry. The Quirk War at the beginning of the Quirk Era is what spurred on the use of quirks in military defenses all over the world. The Quirk War is where the quirked fought back against those who were trying to oppress them. It is also the first time heroes coined their title and began working for the government to protect the quirkless population. Now heroes protect everyone.

In the six months Hitoshi had after Izuku left he definitely couldn’t reach the heights of comprehension and the IQ Izuku had but he was well versed in the human mind. Not only that but the minds of animals as well. With no one to try out the list of things he wanted to try with his quirks, Hitoshi turned to stray dogs and cats on the streets to see if he could control them. Actually worked for the most part after a few tries of finding the switch in a dog’s brain. He’d kneel down and say all perky: “Hey, buddy!” or something like that to get the dog excited and the dog would bark back allowing him to take hold with his brainwashing. The only issue was that the dog’s wagging tail would hit itself and almost immediately break the hold Hitoshi had. So he moved to cats and, well, they mostly just glared at him or yawned when he tried to talk to them so that was a bust. Still, it was progress. He still had a plethora of things to try but he;d wait until he found someone he trusted enough to try them on. Maybe if he met Izuku at his next orphanage then Izuku would let him try them? He’d have to be careful to avoid that over-brainwashing dummy thing.

Before he knew it, having gotten lost in the books, Hitoshi’s time at this orphanage came to an end.

“So you’re leaving, huh?” Kata mused. Kata was a friend Hitoshi made through Izuku. Hitoshi nodded. “Yup, my Dad got a job a few hours away so we are moving with him.” That was a new thing Hitoshi picked up. He didn’t really boast about being an orphan and once he saw Izuku do it and felt confident in his studies of the human mind, Hitoshi began ‘pulling an Izuku’ and making a fake life for himself. It was too late to change his quirk but next time he definitely would and if Izuku was there then Hitoshi knew that the greenette would back up his false story of a different quirk as he would be doing the same thing. They’d have dirt on each other but because they would be friends they wouldn’t use it. 

“Sucks man,” Kata patted his shoulder. They stopped outside of the school on Hitoshi’s last day. “Hope to see you around, Shinsou. Here’s my number. Text me when you get a phone, k?” Hitoshi accepted the slip of paper. “Sure thing. See you around, Kata.”

Hitoshi was already packing his suitcase when the boy’s caretaker came down the boy’s hall to him. Hitoshi already knew he was leaving when his teacher announced his last day at school. Hitoshi wasn’t in Izuku’s class when he was still here so that was why he didn’t know when Izuku was leaving. “Hey, Hitoshi.” The purple haired boy stood with suitcase in hand. Oh how he hated that look on the caretaker’s face. Pity. He knew Hitoshi already knew and understood because this kept happening over and over again.

\-----

_ ‘Don’t forget to smile, okay?’ _

\-----

Hitoshi smirked. “Don’t worry, Masa, it’s fine. I’ll find one next time, right?” He winked. They always say that. Hitoshi walked past the row of children, orphans, waiting for him to leave. “Good luck, everyone,” he waved. “I hope you all find your families.” No one said anything, too afraid of his quirk, but they at least had the courtesy to wave.

Hitoshi grunted as he put his suitcase in the trunk of the car.  _ I should really gather some muscle if I want to be a hero. _ Hitoshi got in the car and it pulled away.

_ I wonder if Izuku will be here. Maybe he actually got adopted? That’d be amazing. But then I wouldn’t have a friend there…  _ Hitoshi is contemplative. He doesn’t know what to expect out of this new orphanage. He only just turned 12 so he still has a month before that really harsh drop off rate for children getting adopted. Now that he thinks about it, both his and Izuku’s birthdays are in July so Izuku should be 12 years old now too. Hitoshi both wants Izuku to be there but he wants Izuku to have been adopted too but he doesn’t want to start his new persona without a returning offender. Izuku being there would really bolster the lie! Hitoshi watches as the forest of dead trees continues outside of his window. He sighs and rests his head against it.  _ We’ve been driving for a while now. I didn’t know there was a place like this in Japan. What a dreary place to live. I hope the orphanage isn’t here. _

Well, his hopes were thrown out of the window when the car came to a stop outside of an old two story building. “We’re here,” says the driver. “The End of the Line Orphan Home.” Hitoshi blinks.  _ Well that’s an ominous name now isn’t it?  _ He gets out of the car hesitantly and looks around.  _ Here? There are no houses or buildings nearby. Where…  _ Hitoshi looks at the building where a scary old couple had just stepped out.  _ Where are we…? _ “Meet Granny and Grandpa, your new caretakers.” The car starts to pull out. Hitoshi whips around. “Hey! My bags!” He waves after it but the driver doesn’t stop. Hitoshi sighs as it drives out of sight. “Great…” 

A hand on his shoulder practically made Hitoshi’s soul leap from his body. He spun around and met the face of… Granny? He thinks. Violet eyes widen in realization too late for the blood-covered bat to come down and across, smashing into the left of his skull with a loud-

* **BAM** *

…

…

…

Hitoshi rolls over on his side with a loud groan. “My head…” His head hurts so bad! It feels like it is exploding! Or exploded, mind you. Hitoshi slowly sits up, holding his head in his hands. “What the hell kind of a greeting was that?” He looks around, vision swimming a bit. He’s in this small room. It’s like the size of a small walk-in closet. There is nothing but this cot he is on chained to a wall and a bucket in the corner and… another person?

Hitoshi blinks.  _ Wait. What? _

In the corner next to his cot lies a thin, pale boy with very familiar green curls leaned up against a wall with a roll of blood-soaked toilet paper in his hands. Through his dazed mind, it takes Hitoshi a few seconds to process exactly who is sitting there. When he finally collects himself the name is off his lips before he can process it.

“Izuku?!”

Viridian eyes snap open. Faster than Hitoshi can process, the boy in question dives for him, slamming Hitoshi against the wall with his hand over his mouth. Hitoshi’s head spins when it hits the concrete wall behind him. He was about to ask what Izuku was doing when he met the petrified eyes of Izuku. Something tells him he needs to keep his trap shut so that is just what he does until Izuku flops down on the floor in the middle of the room with a heavy sigh. “Iiiiidiot… Do you want her to hear you?” Izuku hisses and Hitoshi is taken aback by the annoyance in the boy’s voice. “Her?” “Granny, obviously,” Izuku sits up. “Welcome to the End of the Line Orphan Home, or as I like to call it, the End of Our Lives. Here, patch yourself up.”

In the span of about five minutes, as Hitoshi holds the roll of toilet paper to his still slightly bleeding head, Hitoshi’s world is flipped over on its head. Izuku really doesn’t cut corners and this was  _ not _ how Hitoshi expected nor wanted his reunion with his only friend to go in any way, shape, or form. At the end of Izuku’s explanation of the literal death trap Hitoshi has found himself in, a journal is tossed at him. “Read that,” Izuku instructs and ooooh boy his dead voice does not match that smile on his lips and it sends shivers down Hitoshi’s spine. “Okay…?” Hitoshi flips to the front page. He tries to ignore Izuku peeing in the corner in their supposed ‘toilet’ and instead reads.

The more he reads the sicker Hitoshi feels. “No way…” he whispers. “Way,” Izuku huffs, snatching the pen clipped on the back of it and sitting on the cot. Hitoshi turns his head to see what Izuku is doing. The greenette scratches out a circle drawn on the wall. Hitoshi’s blinks. “What are you doing?” he asks. Izuku doesn’t turn to him. 

“Counting.” Izuku replies.

“Counting what?”

“My days left.” He taps the other rows of circles crossed out. “It’s a right of passage.” Hitoshi pales. “Sorry, I’m probably not the ‘Guardian Child’ you wanted.” Hitoshi scowls.  _ What happened to him? What happened to his perky self?! _ Hitoshi closes the journal. “You aren’t trying to escape like the others then?”

Izuku sighs. He leans his forehead against the cool wall. “What’s the point? We are here because literally no one wants us, Hitoshi. No one… no one to love us, to see us, to want us… No one to adopt us… Ha… Big sis Reiko would be so disappointed in me, wouldn’t she? Sorry, Hitoshi… This is reality. We aren’t wanted in this world.”

The purple haired boy stared in shock at his depressed friend. Depressed. Izuku is depressed. It didn’t feel real. Hitoshi didn’t think Izuku  _ could _ get depressed. He looks back down at the journal.  _ Is this really the end? After everything they went through to try and make an escape route for us?  _ * **thump** * Hitoshi looks over. Izuku had flopped over on his side on the cot. Hitoshi looks at his friend sadly. 

As far as he knows, to Izuku the ultimate form of love would be to be adopted. It was something the boy held on a pedestal even higher than that All Might toy he used to have. For it to be so plainly laid out in his face in this brutal way of a death timer above his head, Hitoshi knows that had to be a shock.

* **BANG** *

Hitoshi’s head whips to the sound of a metal doors closing. Izuku looks over his shoulder at the door with tired eyes. “The iron maiden,” he whispers to no one in particular. Hitoshi watches that smile grow a bit wider. “Wait for me, Reiko… I’m coming soon…”

Hitoshi’s heart drops. Reiko’s entry was the last one in the journal. Izuku must have been with her. She even wrote his name. Hitoshi, being in here for only but an hour maybe, feels despair well in him. He shakes his head.  _ No! Hitoshi, don’t forget who you want to be! You want to be a hero!  _ He straightens up.  _ And a hero saves people. _ Hitoshi looks over at Izuku who is now facing the wall again.  _ Starting with you, Izuku! _

Hitoshi had to work fast to make a plan to get Izuku on his side of escaping because they had six days left. He spent the time after Grandpa changed their toilet straight reading that journal, making a map of the house above in his mind. It was a bit hard to concentrate with Izuku throwing that darn pebble at the door but he managed. Hitoshi thinks Izuku is watching him, though. Maybe that will inspire him? Seeing Hitoshi’s motivation?

“Izuku, stop it,” Hitoshi grabs the boy’s arm. Izuku halts, blood seeping through his teeth. Hitoshi cringes. The tips of Izuku’s fingers looked like they were gnawed off by a chipmunk or something. Izuku does this often, Hitoshi noticed. Just when he isn’t doing anything and his mind wanders. It really isn’t healthy. The pen slips from Izuku’s hand as he had just finished crossing out the second circle out of seven. Hitoshi slowly moves Izuku’s hand down. “Enough of that, look here.” He tries not to acknowledge it. Instead, Hitoshi drags Izuku by the arm to turn him around on the cot. Luckily the depressed Izuku is easily moveable.

“I’ve got a plan,” Hitoshi states boldly. Izuku sighs. “Hitos-” “No. Listen to me,” Hitoshi cuts him off. “I’ve. Got. A. Plan.” He jabs Izuku’s chest with his pointer finger. “I’ve got a plan and I need  _ you _ to carry it through.”

_ Time to work some mind game magic. Six months of brain studies don’t fail me now! _


	11. Day 1 - The Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five days left. Five day's to escape. Izuku and Hitoshi need a plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone?

**DAY ONE**

____________________________

Izuku stared down at Scrappy. He was only somewhat listening to Hitoshi’s words. He was more or less appeasing the purple haired boy. Hitoshi had obviously been working hard on this for the past two days so Izuku minus well at least offer him some attention. After all, Hitoshi was the first one to actually look at him, like the real him, quirkless and all, so Izuku supposes he owes the boy at least to look at him back.

Honestly, Izuku had lost a lot of hope. He didn't see the point really in living. He minus well go join Reiko in death. She saw him too. Hitoshi would follow after and then they could all celebrate and then whoever Hitoshi will be the Guardian Child of too. But Hitoshi had other plans, apparently.

A pen was slid into Izuku’s hand. “Alright, you are smarter than me, Izuku,” Hitoshi admitted. He flipped to the next blank page.  _ Hey. I was supposed to write my message to you there before I die. _ He glances down at his throbbing fingers, raw from biting on his almost nonexistent nails at this point.  _ I was going to seal it with a fingerprint and everything. _ “You’ve memorized this whole book, haven’t you, Izuku?” Hitoshi asks.

Izuku narrows his eyes. “How’d you know?”

“I know you,” Hitoshi responds. “Reiko told you to, she saw you, you would do what she says. Also, you’re a nerd, a studyholic, if you will. I knew you would memorize it.” A beat. “I see you and have seen you for long enough to know this much.”

And just like that, Izuku felt a small spark light in him.  _ Hitoshi sees me… _

“Izuku, I am going to need you for this plan.”  _ Hitoshi needs me. _ “I could try alone, sure. I could even wait for my own child to be Guardian over but I don’t want to. I want to escape with you. Izuku, I want you.”  _ Hitoshi wants me…  _ Sure, Izuku knows in the back of his mind that Hitoshi knows he will respond to this and he might be lying but Izuku wants to believe him. “We didn’t get our families. No one came to adopt us,” Hitoshi continues. “But we don’t need one. We have each other. Maybe not biological but I- if you’ll have me, let me be your brother.” Desperation laced Hitoshi’s voice. He was striving for something, something to click in Izuku’s mind. “I will be your adoptive family.”

For Izuku… the ultimate form of love is to be adopted. He stared at Hitoshi with wide eyes. His mouth fell dry.  _ This _ is what he wanted. It may not be the real deal and he might not be adopted the way he wanted but  _ this. _ Families aren’t perfectly structured. If Hitoshi wants to be his brother then… how can Izuku say no?! He sees him! It clicked in his mind that this boy in front of him needed to be protected. Izuku had to protect him. He had to protect those that wanted him because he needed them to want him forever. A fire lit in Izuku’s chest.

He grabbed the journal with new determination. “Alright,  _ brother _ , what’s your plan?” Hitoshi smirks. “No, what’s yours? I know you have one despite acting like you didn’t,  _ BrOtHeR. _ ” Izuku grinned, a real grin. “You know me so well, Hitoshi. Fine. Here we go.” He put pen to paper and off Izuku went.

Izuku did, in fact, memorize Scrappy word for word. He closes his eyes and imagines Yua’s third entry in his head. The words run across his mind’s eye in almost slow motion. Izuku has also seen the boat room, basement, and death room for himself. Using that, he draws out a floor plan of the bottom level of the house. He wrote: BASEMENT on the top. Izuku flipped to the next page and wrote: FLOOR ONE. Izuku only had a brief glance at it from his own excursion so he closed his eyes and remembered Kazumi’s entry. He drew out a floor plan. The clearing outside of the basement stairwell, small hall for the front door and mini storage room there, the living room and stairwell with latched door to Granny’s room, the expanse into the shelter room, the bathroom, and then the stairwell up to the second floor. Izuku flipped the page and wrote: SECOND FLOOR. He drew out the floor plan from Kazumi’s words. The kitchen, hall, guest room, dining room, even the small vent, the security room and the attic, the balcony, and Granny’s and Grandpa’s room. Finally, the attic. It almost physically hurt Izuku to remember Reiko’s words but he did. He flipped the page and wrote: ATTIC. He drew out the two little rooms there and the caged room. 

Izuku flipped the next page and wrote down the schedule for Granny and Grandpa’s visits to their little room in the basement.

“For this,” he tapped it, “while we are upstairs one of us are going to need to be tracking the seconds and minutes we are up there. I can do it if you can’t. I’ve been doing it for a while now anyways. Right now we are at- 74601… 74602.... 74603 seconds. Granny or Grandpa will check up every 86400 seconds give or take, that is a whole day if divided by 60 minutes. But we only have half of that each time because they will come to feed us too every other day. That’s 42300 seconds.”

“So that’s why you speak slowly,” Hitoshi muses. Izuku looks up. The boy nods. “You speak a bit slowly because you’ve been running an internal clock in your head, haven’t you? You speak on the beat of every second.” Izuku nods. Hitoshi hums. “Alright, I’ll do that too so you don’t get mixed up.”

For the next few minutes, Izuku counted the seconds out loud while Hitoshi read the journal out loud to the beat of it until he could pace it correctly. 

“Shoot, I didn’t realize just how smart you really were until now,” Hitoshi muses, “but I did read something about the quirkless having more brain capacity because there is extra space where controlling a quirk is for everyone else so I guess it makes sense.” Izuku shrugs. “I guess. Now, back to the plan.” They turn back to Scrappy.

“In order to get out through the front door we need the door knob, the crowbar, the cutting pliers, the padlock key, and the hand wheel. The handwheel is in the attic, the pliers are on the balcony, the crow bar is in the vent, the door knob is in the security room, and the padlock key is in the dining room so we will mostly be on the second floor regretfully. Same goes for the stun gun which is in Granny’s and Grandpa’s room. Let’s plan on getting the crowbar first thing. If anything, we can use that as a weapon too but we don’t want to alert both of them. So we will need to get into the guest room and into that vent first. If they hear us then we can hide in it for a bit but no longer than the 42300 seconds we have per excursion and a lot of time will be taken up by needing to be back at least an hour before or after that just in case and having to be slow and quiet.”

Izuku looked up. “Do you know Morse Code?” Hitoshi shook his head. Izuku mentally cursed. “Alright, scratch that. I don’t have time to teach you.” He looked back to Scrappy. “So the crowbar, we definitely need that. Once we have that we can move onto the other things. Let’s go for the padlock key. They’re close together. We just need to keep it in progression like that. We don’t want to get too many things at once though. At some point we absolutely need to get the stun gun but let’s try not to use it too soon. We don’t need one angry person and one stunned person. Unless it is aimed at Grandpa and Grandpa is right next to the Security Room we don’t use it. We can get the cutting pliers around this time too. The key from Grandpa is what is the most important because we will be able to get into the attic then. After we get into the attic it is all smooth sailing in theory. Of course, we won’t really know until it actually happens but first things first,” Izuku closes it, “the crowbar.”


	12. Day 2 - Into Action

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku and Hitoshi act on their plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone today?

**DAY TWO**

____________________________

Hitoshi holds his breath as Grandpa opens the door to their room and slides in a plate of food. The door creaks shut with a solid * **click** *. Hitoshi still doesn’t get up. Not for another good few minutes. Izuku, who is lying by him on the cot, has already started counting the seconds since Grandpa’s departure.

“-ree… four… five… six…”

Hitoshi finally sat up and crawled over to the plate of food and the cup of water. He split the bread in half. “Izuku, catch.” He tossed it over. Izuku sat up, catching it. His face was blank though. He was focused solely on counting. Hitoshi didn’t blame his tenseness. Izuku has five days left. If they can’t do this in five days Izuku is going to die. They eat silently, Hitoshi being careful not to make much noise and break Izuku’s concentration. Instead, he sits by the door and listens to the house above. Inside his chest his heart pounds painfully. 

“Threethousand-five hundred-ninety seven…” Izuku stood. “Threethousand-five hundred- ninety eight…” Hitoshi stands. They meet at the door. “Threethousand-five hundred-ninety nine…” Izuku places his hand on the doorknob. “Threethousand-six hundred.”

Izuku quietly opened the door to the basement. Hitoshi squeezed his eyes shut, half expecting to see Granny or Grandpa waiting for them, expecting this. They weren’t. Izuku gestured him forward. Right, Hitoshi is going first. Izuku has to keep track of their time so he is following. Hitoshi led the way across the expanse of the basement. He slowly crept up the stairs and peaked over the edge into the house just in time to see Granny round the corner. Hitoshi grabbed Izuku’s arm and yanked down harshly.

_ Shoot! She didn’t see us, right?! _

They met eyes. * **thump** * * **thump** * * **thump** *. Granny’s footsteps overhead had to be the most terrifying things he’s ever heard. Gradually, they got farther and farther away. It took a lot of courage for Hitoshi to look back over the edge. She was gone. He nodded and crept out. Izuku held him back and pointed at a singular floorboard and then exaggerated a motion over it.  _ It creaks _ , Hitoshi receives the message. He stepped over it. They made a b-line for the small cabinet in the room. Hitoshi pulled it out and took the duct tape in it.  _ Just in case _ . Izuku took it and put it in his hoodie pocket. They moved towards the stairs leading to the second floor.

“ _ I see you! _ ” Grandpa’s yell startled the boys so bad Hitoshi might have peed himself if he hadn’t just thirty minutes prior. They swung their heads around. Grandpa was just coming out of the hall with the front door in it, cane raised. Hitoshi froze.  _ No… Not already! NO! _ “Freaking go!” Izuku shoved him up the stairs. HItoshi tripped, almost falling over himself on the first step. Izuk cursed again and jumped over him, kicking off of the wall with agility Hitoshi didn’t know the smaller child had. He grabbed HItoshi’s wrist so tightly Hitoshi thought that it might literally snap in Izuku’s grip. Hitoshi was dragged, stumbling over his feet, all the way up the stairs and into the kitchen. Izuku took a sharp left. Half way down the hall Granny appeared on the other side. “Suck!” Izuku turned and kicked down the guest room door. He turned, pulled open the closet, threw Hitoshi in it , and slammed it before stopping, dropping, and rolling under the guest bed just before Granny rounded the corner into it.

Hitoshi’s hands covered his mouth and nose so tightly he could barely breathe and his heart slamming against his ribcage was not helping. He heard Grandpa meet Granny in the room. He could hear their breathing just outside of the closet. Tears pricked in his eyes.  _ Please… Please!!! _ Time ticked by. Hitoshi began counting the seconds. Minutes ticked by. He heard a dark, low laugh that made him think they had found them. It wasn’t until he heard Granny and Grandpa leave the room did he realize they had forgotten why they were in there and were laughing about it. Their alztheimers worked in the boys’ favor.

He gasped for air but tried to keep quiet.  _ That was so freaking close!!! _ Izuku had the most vision of the room at the moment from under the bed so Hitoshi waited for his call to move. Eventually, Hitoshi heard the sound of shuffling. Izuku dragged himself out from under the bed. He stood and opened the closet door. Hitpshi met angry eyes. The greenette reached forward and grabbed the collar of Hitoshi’s white t-shirt. He yanked Hitoshi forward and growled into his ear.

“ _ Just because I am unable to stop smiling doesn’t mean I’m happy. That was freaking not funny, got it? _ ”

Somehow, angry Izuku was about twenty times scarier than Granny and Grandpa combined. The fact that Izuku actually physically seemed to have issues with not smiling made it worse. In his studies, Hitoshi got on a sudden spur of why Izuku was smiling even though he was truly not happy and came across Angelman Syndrome and the Pseudobulbar Affect. Now, Hitoshi isn’t a doctor by any means but he could almost place money on Izuku self-inflicting one or parts of both of these on himself when he decided to start smiling to attract families and it made overall conversations with him, even the most morbid, really terrifying sometimes.

Hitoshi was let go. He rubbed his neck.  _ That was too close… Izuku’s right. I need to get a hold of myself. _ He looks down at Izuku’s shaking hands. The boy is petrified. Of course. Why wouldn’t he be? His life is literally on the line here.

They crouch by the vent on the floor. It runs into the wall and should lead into the dining room. It’s tall enough for them to fit if they crouch. Izuku grabs at the grating and tries to pull it open. Hitoshi joins him but they are ultimately unable to get it to budge. The greenette’s hand habitually comes to his mouth as Izuku worries his uneven fingernails between his teeth. 

“Fine,” he whispers. “He jerks his head towards the door that is still open. Hitoshi is obliged to follow.  _ Dang it, I was supposed to be manning this! Now Izuku has to track the time and gather the items and do everything!  _ Hitoshi felt really bad. He followed Izuku into the dining room. On the table there was a ripped piece of paper. If he remembers correctly, that was a piece of the picture of Granny and Grandpa. While Izuku rounded the table to the small drawer in the corner, Hitoshi picked that up and folded it. Hitoshi’s clothing consisted of a white t-shirt and some dark purple shorts. Not exactly the best choice of clothing for living in a cold basement. He slid the folded paper into his shorts pocket. Izuku closed the drawer and turned to him holding up a small key with a blue handle. The Padlock Key.

Hitoshi nodded.

The radio in the kitchen turned on.  _ ‘Granny's house, I don't wanna stay, I just wanna go home, I don't wanna be at Granny's house, she be creeping me out, Take me home right now, I don't wanna stay here!’ _ Grandpa was dancing to it in the kitchen. If Hitoshi and Izuku weren’t so freaked out they would have laughed but no, they were currently freaked out. They scrambled into the guest room and under the bed again. They waited, listening to that song over and over again. How ominous that they have their own theme song. When it finally shut off, they listened to Grandpa’s heavy steps retreat downstairs. Hitoshi looked out of the still open door. No one was there. Viridian eyes and Violet eyes met. Izuku nodded. He slid the key into Hitoshi’s hand.  _ Alright. I can do this. Calm down. Don’t screw up like last time.  _

He crawled out from under the bed and got into a crouched position. Using the end of the key, Hitoshi unscrewed the vent door. It fell towards him but Hitoshi caught it. He froze, hoping no one heard the creak of metal. They were safe. The purple haired boy waved Izuku out. Together they entered the vents. Just as Scrappy’s entries said, the crowbar was there waiting for them. Izuku took it in one hand. The sound of footsteps alerted them to either Granny’s or Grandpa’s position. Hitoshi pulled the grating up to lean against the entrance but he slipped. It fell to the ground with a loud-

* **CLANG** *

_ Shoot! _ He pulled it up to lean against it quickly. Izuku dragged him further into the vent. Fast footsteps stormed down the hall. Granny stopped outside the bedroom and looked in but saw nothing.

After that slip up, Granny and Grandpa were both on the second floor for quite a while leaving Izuku and Hitoshi trapped in the vent. Air was getting thinner the longer they stayed and Hitoshi had to use the bathroom but they couldn’t risk moving. At some point Izuku began to get antsy, biting his nails and twisting his wrists. Hitoshi couldn’t even tell him to stop at the moment. Time was starting to run out. Izuku, who was keeping track of that, was starting to shift. They needed to get out soon. 

At some point a brief moment of silence was the only thing Izuku cared about. Hitoshi couldn’t stop him as he pushed past and pushed the grating out of the way. Hitoshi just resigned himself to following. Footsteps in the stairwell had them going further into the second floor. They entered Granny’s and Grandpa’s room on silent feet just in time to hear the balcony door open. Granny’s high pitched laugh had them both looking over their shoulders and-  _ OH MY GOSH SHE IS SO FAST! _ Hitoshi was not about to make the same mistake as last time. He ran forward to the door on the other side of their room where a small latch kept it closed. Izuku closed the main door, pushing against it. Hitoshi flipped open the latch and opened the door to the stairs that led down to the first floor living room. He frantically waved Izuku over.

* **BANG** *

Granny slammed her bat against the bedroom door. Izuku shook his head.

* **BANG** *

Hitoshi nodded harshly.  _ Come one! We don’t have time for this! _

* **BANG** *

Izuku grit his teeth. He left the door and bolted for the stairwell. Granny busted into the room. Hitoshi followed Izuku down with flying feet. They took three steps at a time before crashing to the bottom. Grandpa was blissfully unaware on the second floor. They made a mad dash for the basement. Izuku planted a hand on the railing and swung his body over it, falling down onto the harsh concrete. “Izuku!” Hitoshi hissed.  _ Stop being so reckless! _ He ran down normally. Granny was hot on his tail but Hitoshi was just a bit faster. He helped Izuku up and they ran into their room, closing their door.

“Here, here, here!” Hitoshi lifted the mattress. He threw the picture piece under it and Izuku threw the key and crowbar and duct tape. They put it down and sat on it. The door knob turned. Izuku, in a quick work of thought, threw out the hand motion of scissors. Hitoshi threw out rock. Granny opened the door to a game of rock paper scissors.

Hitoshi won the round but both of them won the game of tag between them and the ‘grandparents’. 

____________________________

“That was terrible,” Izuku groaned a few minutes after Granny left. He rubbed the sides of his mouth that felt permanently turned upwards. It was straining to always be smiling but at this point he didn’t know how to stop.

“No kidding. Sorry about that little slip up at the start,” Hitoshi threw out paper. Izuku threw out paper. A tie. “Don’t worry about it,” Izuku said, throwing out rock. He lost to paper again.

“You know what we should have gotten?” Hitoshi mused. He threw out paper. “What?” Izuku threw out rock. “The stun gun.”

…

…

…

He sighed loudly. He lost again.


	13. Day 3 - Missing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku and Hitoshi continue their gathering of items to escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone?

**DAY THREE**

____________________________

“Ugggh…” Izuku rolled over, hearing the door open. He glared at the old woman in their room who came to make sure they were still there, not to feed them.  _ SUCK! ALREADY?! _ Granny left. Izuku was scrambling to start the internal timer.  _ What day? What time?! What is a second again?! _

“Calm down. Quiet,” Hitoshi huffed from the corner. “I’m timing it so be quiet. You just hit your head jumping down the stairs yesterday and slept through the night. Also, the crowbar under that mattress sucks so if you have a back ache that is why.”

Izuku blinked. “Ahhhh…” He sighed, leaning back against the wall listening to Hitoshi counting. He reached under the mattress and pulled out the pen. Izuku turns to the circles on the wall. “Stop that,” Hitoshi says. “You aren’t going to die so there is no point.”

The greenette bit his tongue. He clicked the pen and scratched out the circle anyways. He has two more left. “If anything,” he says quietly, “it is honoring tradition.” Hitoshi is silent and so Izuku is too. He crouches down by the corner of the room and marks off another day. Six months is almost up. Just a few more days. Two more days after today to make their great escape. Two more days to save Izuku’s life.

Hitoshi counts down the last seconds. Izuku reaches under the mattress and grabs the crowbar. “Threethousand-six hundred,” Hitoshi announces. Izuku immediately opens the door. HItoshi has the count so Izuku can focus on the more physical aspects. He rushes to the box at the other end of the basement. It takes a few moments but he pried it open with the crowbar. It held the spark plug to the boat. They didn’t really need it but just in case they needed a distraction they had something to throw. He pocketed it and waved Hitoshi to follow him to the stairs. Izuku poked his head up over the ledge and peered into the first floor. “Clear,” he whispers. 

The point of entrance today was the stairs into Granny’s room. To test if Granny or Grandpa relatched it. They snuck past the font door and into the living room. Izuku threw out his arm, stopping Hitoshi. Grandpa was sleeping on the couch. Grandpa has terrible hearing though. Izuku pressed a finger to his lips and carried on.

* **creeeaaak** *

_ Of- freaking -course!  _ The floorboard underneath announced their presence just loud enough to alert Grandpa of them being there. The man began to wake. Izuku sped past and into the stairwell but Hitoshi was a bit behind. He diverted his path to the shelter room to hide. Izuku mentally cursed.  _ We’re separated. _ He glanced down at the crowbar in his hand.  _ At least I still have this.  _ Izuku made his way up the stairs. He pressed his ear to the door and sat there for a good few moments listening. He heard nothing so Izuku tried the door. They hadn’t relatched it but Granny was just turning the corner into it. Izuku dived under the king-sized bed. As Granny walked by towards the door he just came through, he crawled to the other side, mentally making a note that they know about it being opened and will use it now. When she goes downstairs Izuku comes out from under the bed.  _ The balcony. _ Izuku fled to the balcony and closed the door behind him.

The walls around it were painted to look like mock stars. Funny. Even though he knows they are fake just seeing them makes Izuku miss the stars and the sky he hasn’t seen for six months. He feels a slight draft in a crack in the corner of the wall. As though in a daze, Izuku got on his toes and holds his head up to it.

_ Fresh air _ , he thinks.  _ I haven’t felt it in so long.  _ He shivers.  _ I miss it…. _ Izuku felt determination well in him again. He nods and turns to the box on the balcony. He uses the crowbar to pry off the top. Inside were the cutting pliers. He can’t use them yet. If he cuts the power now it will alert Granny and Grandpa to their plans. So Izuku slips it into his hoodie pocket. He crawls through the window into Granny’s room, dropping on her bed.  _ If I remember correctly, the stun gun should be… _ He reaches into the second drawer of the three drawer dresser to the left of the bed.  _ Bingo. _

He hears Granny coming.  _ Time to go. I should meet up with Hitosh- _

* **_SHATTER_ ** _ * _

Izuku jumps.  _ What was that?! _ Izuku bolts out the door and down the stairs. Through the living room and front door hall he sees Hitoshi skirt around the basement stairwell and fling himself down. Grandpa was hot on his tail.  _ Shoot! _ Izuku went around the other way, only for Granny to cut him off. He dove into the bathroom and into the shower, pulling the door closed. She was distracted by the commotion so Izuku was left to sit there for a long while. He listened to what was happening in the basement the best he could but it was muffled. Izuku can only pray that Hitoshi got away scot free. 

At some point Grandpa came into the bathroom to actually use it and wasn’t that both awkward and terrifying at the same time as Izuku was still cowering in the shower. He doesn’t know how much time he has or if Granny and Grandpa are looking for him or anything. Hitoshi was keeping track of the time. Izuku started counting once he got in the shower. He was in there about an hour and a half before the house went silent for a bit. When he heard the radio in the kitchen above go off, Izuku decided to finally leave the bathroom.

He found out what the shattering sound was. In the expanse of area before him there was a shattered vase. Granny was cleaning it up currently. She almost scared Izuku out of his skin. Izuku turned left and entered the living room on silent feet. He took the piece of the picture of Granny and Grandpa laying on the living room coffee table, folded it, and slid it into his pocket. Izuku peered around the corner of the front door mini hall. Granny had his back to him sweeping up the shards of glass. He tiptoed by and entered the basement. Izuku ran to his and Hitoshi’s and Reiko’s room.

He quietly opened the door and shut it behind him with a breath of relief.

Two arms wrapped around his waist. If Izuku didn’t have half a brain he would have screamed. Instead he looked over his shoulder. Hitoshi’s forehead was pressed to the small of his back between his shoulder blades. Izuku gulped. “H- hey…”

“Where the hell were you?” Hitoshi growled. “I’ve been down here for ages! Do you know how terrifying it is to be counting down the literal seconds while waiting for your brother to come back when you know he is up there with the people who plan to kill him in two days?!” Izuku lowered his head. “I’m sorry…”

Hitoshi glared at him. “You don’t look sorry smiling like that.”

“I- I’m sorry. I don’t know how to fix that either,” Izuku whispered. 

Hitoshi went silent. He sighed. “Me too… I’m sorry,” the purple haired boy whispered. “I shouldn’t have brought that up.”

Izuku swallows thickly. He thinks about it often: if there is really something wrong with him. Why can’t he stop smiling? Why can’t he cry normally? Why doesn’t he have a quirk? Why do people avoid him? Is there something he isn’t seeing? Is he sick? Diseased? What’s wrong with him? He knows Hitoshi feels guilty for bringing that up. Hitoshi knows he thinks about it. But Izuku isn’t mad at Hitoshi. He’s just glad to see the purple haired boy alive after the apparent showdown between him and Grandpa. Hitoshi’s emotions were just running a bit rampant.

“Did Grandpa do this?” Izuku asks as he examines the large bruise on Hitoshi’s abdomen. His brother nods. “I was being stupid. I was hiding in the shelter when Grandpa came to feed that creature and thought I could sneak past. I couldn’t. I got about half way to the door when his cane slammed into me. I ducked under it to get past and he chased me. The vase on the small table in the entrance to the shelter clearing had a pink vase on it so I grabbed it and chucked it at Grandpa to get away. Bought me some time. I got under the cot before he could see me and he gave up to go look for us I think.”

Izuku hummed. He pressed it lightly and Hitoshi flinched. “I don’t think anything is broken luckily but I can’t be sure. Are you going to be able to go out tomorrow?” Hitoshi nodded, putting down his shirt. “Of course. On the bright side today I got this,” he pulled out a piece of the picture. Izuku smirked and pulled out his own. They pulled out the piece they had gotten on their first day.

“Here we go,” Hitoshi lined them up and Izuku ripped off a couple pieces of duct tape. They taped them together on the white back sides so that it wouldn’t hide the picture on the front. Izuku flipped it over. It was a picture of Granny and Grandpa and oddly a black haired girl. Hitoshi took a sharp breath. “What is it?” Izuku asked.

The purple haired boy’s face contorted into a horrified expression. “It’s her,” he whispers. “It’s Yua, the first girl from the journal.” Izuku looked up. Hitoshi met his eyes. “Remember how she wanted to try and get close to Granny and Grandpa? There is a picture of her on the first floor too.”

“But that’s not all, is it?” Izuku presses.

Hitoshi shakes his head. “I- I was in the shelter room. I saw that creature on the other side of the stream. I- Izuku… it was her. It was Yua! They turned her into that  _ thing _ !” Izuku stared blankly at Hitoshi. “... Are you sure…?” Hitoshi nodded, eyes bloodshot and scared. Izuku looked down at the girl standing in between Granny and Grandpa. He felt his stomach churn.

“I think I’m going to be sick.”


	14. Day 4 - Tension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last day to collect items for Izuku and Hitoshi! Will they get them all in time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How is everyone?

**DAY FOUR**

____________________________

Izuku laid out everything they had so far. They had the whole picture put together to use as evidence or to lead the authorities here when they escaped, they had Scrappy, they had the Padlock Key, the Crowbar, the Stun Gun, and the Cutting Pliers. Today was their last chance to gather the rest of the supplies. Tomorrow they had to escape. The day after Izuku was to be killed.

Staring at the last remaining circle to be scratched out really sobered up Izuku. It was honestly frightening to think about. Every night he’d wake up from nightmares from Big Sis Reiko’s death. When he imagined his own body in that iron maiden and the pain that he would feel when each and every spike penetrated his body he shivered. One last chance. They have to do this today.

Hitoshi is in the corner counting the seconds. Izuku is putting him in charge of that so he doesn’t have to do too much of the physical stuff today.

\-----

_Hitoshi groaned as he sat up. He held his stomach._

_‘Are you sure you want to come up today?’ Izuku asked. ‘I can go it alone.’_

_‘Like hell I am letting you do that,’ Hitoshi grumbled. ‘We are brothers, right? We are doing this as a team. I used to be bullied. A small hit like this can’t bring me down.’_

\-----

Izuku shook his head. He remembered Reiko’s words in her diary entry. He had to use the stun gun to knock out Grandpa, get the key from around his neck, and get both him and Hitoshi in the Security Room and up in the attic before Grandma came chasing after them. Izuku slid the stun gun into his hoodie pocket. He holds the small spark plug in his hand. He glanced over at Hitoshi. Violet eyes opened.

“Threethousand-six hundred.”

They are off. First things first is to get to the second floor which they do via the stairs into Granny’s and Grandpa’s bedroom. Grandpa is already up there, great and also not so great. They wait under the bed until he is on the balcony. Izuku and Hitoshi run out. Izuku transfers the stun gun to Hitoshi and runs back into the bedroom. Izuku chucks the spark plug down the stairs and waits until just as he sees Granny’s foot coming to investigate to close the door and close the latch. Just then, Grandpa leaves the balcony and sees Hitoshi. Hitoshi slides his foot back and takes aim with the stun gun. Izuku knows Hitoshi wants to be a hero and would hate doing this but they have no other choice. It’s not like it will kill the man. Hopefully. Hitoshi fires.

* **BAM** * * **bzzzzzt!** *

Grandpa’s body jerks violently and falls to the ground as he falls unconscious. Granny’s footsteps storm up the stairs and she bangs on the door when she notices it is locked. Izuku runs up and all but rips the key off of Grandpa’s neck. He tosses it to Hitoshi who works on unlocking the Security Room door. Izuku carefully grabs the stun gun ammo from where it protrudes out of Grandpa. He makes sure not to shock himself with the excess electricity from it. He hears Granny coming from the kitchen stairwell. “Hurry!” Izuku hisses. “I’m trying!” Hitoshi hisses back.

* **click** *

They swing open the door and slam it shut. Hitoshi pockets the key. Izuku is quick to swipe the doorknob from the small drawer in the Security Room and slide it into his pocket. Hitoshi is already climbing up the ladder. Izuku is quick to follow. He is halfway up when the Security Room door opens. _NO!_ “Izuku!” 

“ _You want to play hide and seek?_ ” she giggles darkly. Granny can’t reach him, he’s too high up, but she lifts her back high above her head and brings it down harshly hitting Izuku’s left ankle between it and the metal ladder into the attic. Pain explodes in his ankle. Izuku gasps, almost letting go of the ladder. Hitoshi reaches down and snags his wrist, yank Izuku up with all of his might. He collapses on the floor of the attic, clutching his ankle in pain. Granny’s giggle from below has Izuku and Hitoshi quaking in their socks. 

She leaves eventually and closes the door behind her.

“Here,” Hitoshi whispers. He grabs Izuku under the arms and pulls him to lean against the wall. “Let me see it,” Hitoshi urges. He rolls up Izuku’s grey sweatpants. Izuku squinted out it through one cracked eye. It already was beginning to swell. Hitoshi poked it lightly. Izuku hissed in pain. “Dang! Stop!” He gasped out. _Shoot that really hecking hurts!_ “It might be broken,” Hitoshi self-diagnosed worriedly. Izuku’s eyes shot open. _No… It can’t be. This can’t be happening right now! We’ve gotten so far!_ He bites his nail.. “That’s fine,” Izuku hisses through tight teeth. “I’ll tie the crowbar to it with duct tape when we get to the basement.” “Izuku, that’s not going to-” “It _has to work_ , Hitoshi,” Izuku growls. The boy shuts his mouth. Izuku leans his head against the wall. “Dang it… Why now of all times? Fine, move on. Get the hand wheel in the thin dresser in the room behind us. I have the doorknob. That’s all we need.”

Hitoshi nods and goes to get it. Izuku swallows the pain and turns to the stun gun. He reloads it. Izuku doesn’t know how much power it has but it still is making a small buzzing sound so it must have at least another shot in it. He doesn’t want to test his luck though so he will save that as a last resort method. Izuku pockets it. Hitoshi comes back with a small, silver wheel. “That’s everything,” he says. Izuku nods. “Let’s wait here a bit while Granny is down there with Grandpa.”

Hitoshi shakes his head. “I’ve got a better idea.” He quietly climbs down into the Security Room. In the room there is a button that turns on multiple televisions that show live footage of certain rooms in the house. He turns it on and watches it for a bit before waving Izuku down Hitoshi reaches up and cups his hands for Izuku to place his right foot in. He carries most of the weight for Izuku as Izuku uses his hands to guide and stabilize himself down. Hitoshi sets his foot back on the ground and stands up straight. “Granny just put Grandpa to bed and is in the kitchen,” he takes Izuku’s arm and wraps it around his shoulder, holding it tightly. “We have to go now.” Izuku nods. “Let’s go.”

Hitoshi opens the door silently and peers out. “Down the living room stairwell,” Izuku whispers.

Their speed is greatly reduced after Granny maimed Izuku and makes for an anxiety filled trek through the house. They unlatch the door. He almost falls down the stairs and would have if Hitoshi hadn't had him. Hitoshi and Izuku look around to check for Granny. They hear her feeding the creature, Yua as Hitoshi claims. That still sickens Izuku to think that may be true. Lady Luck is on their side for the rest of the journey and Hitoshi deposits Izuku on the cot without any issues.

The green haired boy pants, pain wracking through his body. He sits up for Hitoshi to hide their findings and then flops back down with another pained groan. His ankle hurts something fierce and it is slowly traveling up his whole left leg. “Shoot. I just remembered that we need the crowbar for the boards on the front door,” Hitoshi remembers. Izuku groans. “Greeeaaat! Just great!” A hand comes over Izuku’s eyes. “What are y-” “Sleep for now, Izuku,” Hitoshi cuts him off but with all the kindness of the world in his voice. “You can’t do anything for now so just save your strength for tomorrow. Don’t worry. We will still get out together.”

Izuku’s eyes flutter close. Truth be told, he’s exhausted. So… Izuku sleeps.

When he sleeps he dreams. Tomorrow is the day. If they don’t escape then Izuku is dead. Reiko’s screams in his ears jolt him awake. Hitoshi is asleep on the floor next to him. Izuku sighs. _So selfless, never even thinking about yourself._ Izuku’s smile saddens. He reaches under the mattress and takes the pen and journal. After Reiko’s page and all their plans and floor plans, Izuku opens to the next blank page. He nips his finger just enough for the new scab to bleed and rubs the blood on his right thumb before pressing it to the top of the page. _There is my trademark_. Izuku wipes off the blood and finally, after six months of waiting, writes his entry in Scrappy.

____________________________

**Entry #14 - Izuku**

_Hey, Big Sis Reiko, I might be coming to see you soon. Maybe not. Let me elaborate._

_I want to thank everyone who came before me and Hitoshi. Hitoshi is the child I am Guardian over. Using what you left behind, we got the closest to escaping than anyone ever before and tomorrow is the last day. We’ve collected everything we need for the front door and are going to try to escape. Granny broke my ankle today though so that is why I am contemplative. I can’t write this tomorrow because I don’t want Hitoshi to know._

_Sorry, Hitoshi, I know you would get so angry if you saw me writing this._

_To Hitoshi and his child, use this plan to escape just, I don’t know, don’t get your ankle broken? If me and Hitoshi get out then great! But if not, the plans before this entry are next to perfect. You just have to be a bit faster than Granny when getting up the attic. If we don’t escape then it is up to you two. Put an end to this death trap, Hitoshi._

_You were a great brother to have. I hope we can continue to be brothers, even if I die. Thank you for seeing me, Hitoshi. Thank you for wanting me as your family. Thank you for loving and caring about me. I truly hope this is the last time anyone has to sign out but. Tomorrow is the day._

_Goodbye, Hitoshi._

_This is Izuku, signing off, Scrappy._

_Godspeed, Hitoshi._


	15. Day 5 - The Great Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izuku and Hitoshi have everything they need but Izuku and Hitoshi are both wounded. Can they actually make it out?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy! How are you on this fine, lovely day?

**DAY FIVE**

____________________________

“Izuku, STOP.” Hitoshi grabbed his hands and pulled them from his mouth. Izuku looked up in shock. “You’re already hurt. We don’t need you  _ more hurt _ before this all goes down.” Izuku looked down at his hands.  _ Dang it. _ He wiped the blood off on his sweats when Hitoshi let him go.

“Here,” Hitoshi held out the stun gun. “You take this. The most important part is that you make it out. I’ll still have another chance in six months in case I don’t make it.” He slid the picture of Granny, Grandpa, and Yua into Scrappy and also handed that to Izuku. Izuku fiddled with the stun gun, making sure it was on. It was. Hitoshi picked up the cutting pliers and crowbar.

“Let’s do this. Let’s escape Granny’s House.”

He peeked outside of their room. The basement was silent and since they couldn’t hear anything above both Granny and Grandpa had to be on the second floor. Hitoshi creeped out. He crawled up the stairs, keeping his body low. The boy set crowbar on the first step, close to the wall so they would still be hidden from view from the first floor. He reached down and helped Izuku hop up the stairs with the doorknob and padlock key. They met eyes for a brief second and nodded. Hitoshi made for the stairs in the living room after helping Izuku to the front door.

Izuku reached up for the padlock at the top of the door. He bit his tongue.  _ Can’t… reach! _ He shifted to tippy toes.  _ Come on!  _ The greenette looked down at his raised left foot and cursed.  _ Desperate times call for desperate measures.  _ He lowered it to the ground and winced.  _ It hurts… _ Izuku stuffed the collar of his hoodie in between his teeth and bit down to prevent him from crying out. He put full pressure on his left foot and got on his toes. The pain in it was almost blinding but Izuku fought through it. He reached up and just barely slipped the padlock key into the lock.

* **click** *

_ Yes! _ Izuku twisted and slid the lock off. He used the tip of it to flip the latch that it was hooked on. Izuku took the weight off his foot and knelt by the door. He slid the doorknob from his hoodie pocket and lined it up on the door. He was just screwing in the first screw with the padlock key when-

* **bzzzzt!** *

-the power in the house cut off and all the lights went out. Hitoshi successfully cut the breaker lines. Izuku heard Granny and Grandpa stomping around upstairs. Feet pounded down the kitchen stairs. Hitoshi rounded the corner on flying feet. Izuku cursed.  _ I’m not done! _ He felt around for the last screw. His brother almost tripped over him but saw him at the last second and stopped. He reached overhead for the wires around the door. Using the cutting pliers, Hitoshi snipped each one. The only light that they had was a red light above the door that turned green.

“ _ Where are you?! _ ”

Hitoshi grabbed Izuku’s arm and yanked him into the storage closet, quietly closing the door. Izuku covered his mouth.  _ I got it. The doorknob is off! _

Grandpa stormed by the closet, almost hitting the doorway. Izuku would have thought it was Granny if it weren’t for the tap of Grandpa’s cane. Grandpa was moving a lot faster. They caught on and were angry.  _ Of course they caught on! We cut off the electricity!  _ Izuku’s eyes widened when Hitoshi bent down and picked him up bridal style.  _ What the heck?!  _ Hitoshi nudged Izuku’s hand against the doorknob.  _ Ah. Message received.  _ It took a bit to actually get it in the dark but he did. Izuku opened the door for them and Hitoshi bolted out. By now they had memorized the layout of this house for the sole purpose of moving in the dark. Hitoshi took the basement stairs by twos, hoping down them. He set Izuku down carefully just outside their room and went in. Izuku felt around for the small pole sticking out of the wall. His hand hit something.  _ There! _

Hitoshi came out with the hand wheel and hit it against Izuku’s shoulder. The greenette took it and slid it on the pole, feeling it lodge into place. “It’s on,” he announced. Izuku’s and Hitoshi’s hands found the wheel and with all their might they pushed and pulled and turned that small wheel. It was so hard! It barely budged!

* **thump** * * **thump** * * **thump** *

Izuku’s head whirled around to the stairwell. Grandpa was coming and she was coming fast! “Focus!” Hitoshi grunted. Izuku nodded. He turned his attention back to the wheel. Once they got the momentum going, turning the wheel became easier. They heard a squeaking sound and a loud * **BANG** * from above. The wheel stopped turning.

“ _ AH HA! _ ”

Izuku really did scream this time at Grandpa’s surprisingly close voice from right behind them. “Duck!” Izuku dropped his body and rolled on the ground. He heard the * **swish** * of Grandpa’s cane swinging through the air. He pulled the stun gun from his pocket and aimed up. The little red blinking light signalling it being on in the darkness directed Grandpa’s attention towards where his body was hidden in the dark. Izuku didn’t hesitate. As soon as he heard Grandpa’s clothes rustle he fired.

* **BAM** * * **bzzzzzt!** *

In the flashes of electricity, Izuku saw Grandpa’s body light up and jerk like some demonic being in the shadows. His cane was held high over his head ready to swing but muscles spasmed and frozen midswing. The the flashing died out and Grandpa hit the floor at his feet with a * **thump** * and the cane * **clatter** *ed on the ground. Izuku gulped for air. He pushed himself up on his right leg.

“Izuku, here,” Hitoshi called. The greenette hopped on one foot over and found Hitoshi’s outstretched arm. The brothers hobbled up the stairs. They were so close! Only the boards on the door left! Hitoshi picked up the crowbar on the way out of the basement. The cage in front of the door had been lifted. He latched the bar on the first of two wooden planks and pulled while Izuku crouched on the floor and pulled with his bare hands. He could feel the skin peeling but he was used to pain in his hands by now from all the abuse he put them through.

He was getting worried. Izuku hadn’t heard Granny in a while. There is no sound upstairs either.

The first board comes off and they stand to start on the next one. Hitoshi is halfway through the nails getting out on that one when there is a * **swish** * in the air and Izuku feels an earth shattering pain erupt in his skull.

____________________________

* **BAM** * * **thud** *

Hitoshi screeches.  _ That was really, freaking close! Actually, that was so close that-  _ “Izuku?!” Nothing. The purple haired boy swung his head around. The green light above the door is just enough to see Granny behind him and Izuku on the floor.  _ No… _ “NO!!!” Granny lifts her arms to swing at him.

“ _ I see you!!! _ ” * **swish** *

Hitoshi jumps to the side and rolls on the ground.  _ Dang it! DANG IT! WE WERE SO CLOSE!  _ Hitoshi glances briefly at Izuku. Tears prick in his eyes. He turns tail and flees into the living room. Granny is hot on his tail. Hitoshi sprints up the living room stairs. He looks over his shoulder.  _ WHY IS SHE SO MUCH FASTER NOW?!  _ He swears her eyes are glowing red in the dark. The boy trips over Granny’s bed in the dark but rolls onto it and off of it and keeps running. He can hear her footsteps behind him. In the kitchen, Hitoshi screeches to a stop and hides behind the tall cabinet. He waits.

Granny passes by in pursuit. He hears her footsteps heavy in the dark. He hears her start to go down the stairs. Creeping out, Hitoshi slid his right foot on the ground until he felt the ground disappear. He was at the edge of the stairs. The boy took a few steps back and then full on sprinted. He counted two foot falls before leaping from the top of the stairs with a battle cry.

“AHHHHH!!!!!!!!” Hitoshi reached his arms out and collided with Granny. They tumbled down the stairs in a fit of flailing arms and legs but she was old and frail and when she hit the ground with Hitoshi on top of her, he was sure she wouldn’t get up again.

Hitoshi’s ribs throbbed and his head throbbed and everything throbbed but he got up anyway and found the front door hallway again. Hitoshi knelt on the floor and shook his fri- his brother. At first it really was just a ploy to get Izuku to agree to helping him escape but now, after this crazy week, they had gotten so close HItoshi truly felt like this boy could have been his brother.

“Izuku!” he whisper-yelled. He shook the greenette. “Izuku, wake up!” Tears pricked in his eyes. His heart jumped when Izuku let out a pained groan. Viridian eyes fluttered open to a half-lidded state in the green glow. Hitoshi nodded sharply. “Stay with me, Izuku. I’m busting you out of here!” Hitoshi jumped over his brother and took the crowbar in his hands. With all the strength left in his body after that jump down the stairs Hitoshi pried that wooden plank off of that door.

“ _ I. See. You. _ ”

Hitoshi froze. Granny limped into the hall. She swung her bat so fast Hitoshi couldn’t see it in the dark.

“ _ I. SEE. YOU!!! _ ” * **BAM** *

The bat connected with his side followed by a sickening * **_crack_ ** _ *.  _ Hitoshi screamed and fell to the floor. “It hurts!” He clutches his side. “ _ You’ve been naughty boys, _ ” Granny growled. Yes, her eyes most definitely were glowing red. “ _ Time for bed! _ ” Violet eyes squeezed shut.  _ I’m sorry, Izuku! I’m sorry, Reiko! I couldn’t get him out! They were right. I can’t be a hero! I can’t even save my brother!  _ * **swish** *  _ I’m sorry!!!  _ * **BAM** *

_ I’m… sorry…? _

The hit never came. It didn’t hit him. There was no pain. So what was that sound? He peaked one eye open. Izuku stood in front of him with his arms over his head, Granny’s bat against it. “Izuku?!” The greenette let out a low, menacing growl. His smile split his face wide but the anger in his eyes were dilated and filled with rage. “How dare you…” He took a step forward on his broken ankle. It made a loud * **_CRUNCH_ ** _ *  _ that made Hitoshi flinch.

“HOW DARE YOU HURT MY BROTHER!!!!!!!!” Izuku screamed. 

Hitoshi could only stare and watch as in the dim glow in the dark his  _ brother _ attacked. Izuku was like some feral animal. He ducked under the bat and tackled Granny to the ground. She lost her balance on her hurt leg from the earlier fall and Izuku pushed her to the ground. She lifted the bat but Izuku was faste. Izuku slammed his foot down on her wrist once, twice, three times until she let go of the bat. In an instant he picked it from the ground and raised it over his head in both hands.

“This is for Yua!” * **BAM** *

“And this is for Madaline!” * **BAM** *

“For Akito!” * **BAM** *

“And Kubo!” * **BAM** *

“And Kazumi!” * **BAM** *

Izuku lifted the bat one last time. “ _ AND THIS IS FOR BIG SISTER REIKOOOOOO!!!!!!”  _ * **_!!!BAM!!!_ ** *

The greenette panted heavily. Blood dripped off of the bat and from his head and off of his hands. Hitoshi was scared stiff. Izuku’s head slowly turned to him. A few spots of blood were splattered on it. Viridian eyes rolled and Izuku slumped over on the ground.

Hitoshi jolted.  _ Snap out of it! _ He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the pain in his side. Hitoshi grabbed onto the wooden board and ripped it off the door with all of his might.  _ This is our chance! This is our chance! _ He yanked Izuku off of Granny by the collar. He thinks he saw her chest rising just a bit so that was good.  _ Lucky… I thought he’d killed her!  _ They can’t exactly report this place if they become accused of murder after it. He dragged Granny down the stairs and threw her into their basement room before doing the same with Grandpa who still lay unconscious in the basement. Using the roll of duct tape, Hitoshi used every single ounce of it to tape the two together before he fled up the stairs again. He slid to the ground beside Izuku. “Izuku, wake up! Izuku!”

Nothing. He was breathing though. That head wound needed to be addressed soon but he would have to handle that once they escape. Hitoshi shuffled his arms under Izuku’s body and hoisted him up. “Ugh!” Pain exploded in his side. He straightened his back. “Can’t… give up… now!” The exhausted boy took a pained step forward. The bat dragged on the ground. Izuku was still holding it despite his unconscious state; an unconscious effort to defend himself. With a bit of maneuvering, Hitoshi brought Izuku’s arm up to rest on his body so the bat wouldn’t drag.

When he opened the door he stopped in shock. He almost forgot what fresh air felt like. Wind against his skin, the night sky, the sound of nature. He missed it so much and it had only been a week. He wonders how Izuku handled the six months and if the separation from the world and being in solitary confinement so long is what contributed to his instability. Maybe it just solidified the already unstable mindset.

He took a step into the dead forest. As though a testimony to the separation from the world, he was sure it should have been day time but he lost track of day and night in the basement. It was pitch black outside aside from the moonlight. Hitoshi didn’t know where he was going but with Izuku in his arms he took off into the forest.

They did it. Hitoshi and Izuku escaped. Now they had a new problem: how to survive.


End file.
